Repeatability of Wide-field Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Normal Retina

PURPOSE: We evaluated the repeatability of wide-field en face swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) in healthy subjects. METHODS: Healthy subjects underwent two imaging sessions, on average 8 days apart, with a 100 kHz SS-OCTA instrument. The imaging protocol included a central 3 × 3 and 12 × 12 mm scans of the four quadrants resulting in more than a 70° wide-field OCTA of the posterior pole. Quantitative analysis was performed using the inbuilt Macular Density Algorithm Version v0.6.1 and AngioTool software. Consistency for the foveal avascular zone (FAZ), vessel density, and perfusion density of the superficial and deep capillary plexus slabs and the wide-field OCTA superficial slab, and the number of artefacts on the wide-field images were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 21 healthy volunteers (seven men and 14 women; mean age 32 years; range, 18–61; standard deviation, 10.28 years) were included in this analysis. Internal consistency was highest for FAZ area with an intraclass correlation (ICC) = 0.998 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.997–0.999), a FAZ perimeter with an ICC = 0.995 (95% CI, 0.990–0.997), a FAZ circularity with an ICC= 0.976 (95% CI, 0.956–0.987), followed by the vessel density of the inner ring in the superficial slab with an ICC = 0.834 (95% CI, 0.691–0.911), and a vessel density of the inner ring in the deep slab with an ICC = 0.523 (95% CI, 0.113–0.744). The reproducibility of the average vessels length of the wide-field OCTA cropped images was strong (ICC = 0.801; 95% CI, 0.624–0.895), followed by the reproducibility of total number of junctions (ICC = 0.795; 95% CI, 0.613–0.892) and the vessels percentage area (ICC = 0.662; 95% CI, 0.361–0.821). CONCLUSIONS: The level of reproducibility for assessing the microvascular anatomy in wide-field OCTA is strong and can be used to quantify microvascular changes over time. Refinements in analysis strategies and a consensus of which parameters are most useful for quantitative assessment of wide-field OCTA images would be useful in the future. TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: These findings bridge the gap between basic imaging research and clinical use for quantitative wide-field OCTA.