Intra- and Interobserver agreement in assessment of macular diseases using high-definition spectral-domain optical coherence tomography

Abstract

The macula is the center of the posterior pole, and responsible for high acuity vision which is important for facilities like reading, writing, driving and working on the computer. Macular edema (ME) is the most common pathology of the macula resulting in impairment of central vision. ME presents with morphological findings in the preretinal, intraretinal and subretinal space. Since 2004, the clinical diagnosis of macular diseases and its treatment have been greatly improved due to remarkable advances of modern imaging technologies, such as Spectralis optical coherence tomography (OCT) that has a valuable technique for the detection, evaluation and monitoring the central retinal thickness measurement (CRT) in macular diseases. Even though the morphological findings of the macular pathologies are known, the interpretation and measurements of them by OCT may vary. Some of these factors are; the quality of the captured images, the type of the OCT machine, the experience of the physician and at lastly the complexity of the findings.Therefore we aimed to analyze the agreement between a general ophthalmologist (intraobserver) and a specialist of the retinal diseases (interobserver) in the OCT-examination of different macular diseases.