Repeatability and Reproducibility of Tear Meniscus Evaluations Using Two Different Spectral Domain-optical Coherence Tomography

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the repeatability and reproducibility of inferior tear meniscus measurements using two different spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (OCT), and to compare the inter-device agreements between these devices. METHODS: Two examiners evaluated the tear meniscus depth (TMD) and tear meniscus height (TMH) of 20 eyes in 20 normal subjects using Cirrus OCT and Spectralis OCT with the examiners calculating the TMD and TMH. We analyzed intra-examiner repeatability, inter-examiner reproducibility, and inter-device agreement. RESULTS: The average TMD measurements using the Cirrus OCT and Spectralis OCT devices were 151.25 ± 41.53 µm and 139.10 ± 40.56 µm by examiner 1, respectively, and 152.03 ± 42.77 µm and 138.35 ± 39.70 µm by examiner 2, respectively. The TMHs were 291.90 ± 100.19 µm and 245.43 ± 66.44 µm by examiner 1, respectively, and 288.25 ± 98.72 µm and 244.23 ± 60.69 µm by examiner 2, respectively. The TMDs and TMHs measured using these OCT devices were not statistically significant for intra-examiner and inter-examiner measurements (all, p > 0.05). These devices showed high repeatability (intraclass correlation coefficient ≥ 0.991) for intra-examiner TMD and TMH measurements and the inter-examiner coefficient of variation ranged from 2.04% to 4.32%. The 95% limits of agreement between the two devices were −66.13 to 91.95 µm for TMD and −127.18 to 217.68 µm for TMH. CONCLUSIONS: Both OCT devices are useful for conducting inferior tear meniscus measurements. The inter-device agreement was poor, and the devices were not interchangeable.