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Comparison of Measurements Obtained by Retinal Thickness Analysis and Optical Coherence Tomography

Isabel Pires, MD; Rui C. Bernardes, MSc; Conceição L. Lobo, MD, PhD; Mário A. Soares, Tech; José G. Cunha-Vaz, MD, PhD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2002;120:1301-1306.

Objective  To compare measurements of retinal thickness in eyes with mild nonproliferative retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus using 2 different techniques: the retinal thickness analyzer (RTA) and optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Methods  Twenty-eight eyes from 28 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and mild nonproliferative retinopathy were classified according to the Wisconsin grading system by 7-field stereoscopic fundus photography. Ten eyes were classified as level 10 (absence of visible lesions) and 18 as level 20 or 35 (minimal retinopathy). All eyes were examined by the RTA and OCT. Healthy populations were used to establish reference maps for the RTA (n = 14; mean age, 48 years; age range, 42-55 years) and OCT (n = 10; mean age, 56 years; age range, 43-68 years). Reference maps were computed using the means + 2 SDs of the values obtained for each location. Increases in thickness were computed as a percentage of increase over these reference maps.

Results  The RTA detected increases in thickness in 1 or more locations in 24 of the 28 diabetic eyes examined, whereas OCT detected increases in only 3 eyes. The percentages of increase detected by the RTA ranged from 0.3% to 73.5%, whereas OCT detected percentages of increase of 0.3% to 4.8%.

Conclusion  Optical coherence tomography is less sensitive than the RTA in detecting localized increases in retinal thickness in the initial stages of diabetic retinal disease.

From the Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital of Coimbra (Drs Pires, Lobo, and Cunha-Vaz and Ms Soares), the Center of New Technologies for Medicine (Mr Bernardes and Dr Cunha-Vaz), Association for Biomedical Research and Innovation on Light and Image (Dr Cunha-Vaz), and the Institute of Biomedical Research on Light and Image, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra (Drs Lobo and Cunha-Vaz), Coimbra, Portugal.

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