COMPARISON OF THE CHOROIDAL VASCULARITY INDEX MEASUREMENTS OF IMAGES ACQUIRED WITH DIFFERENT OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY SCAN SCALE TYPES

Purpose: To evaluate the differences in choroidal vascularity index (CVI) measurements between images acquired at the 1:1 pixel scale and at the 1:1 mu m scale of the Heidelberg optical coherence tomography device. Methods: Forty-five healthy eyes of 45 healthy subjects were included for this study. Fovea-centered scans were obtained with an enhanced-depth imaging mode with a high-speed protocol scan. Each scan was exported in 3 different types: 1) 1:1 pixel scale type; 2) 1:1 mu m scale type (MST); and 3) 4x-magnified MST (4xMST; 400%-magnified 1:1 mu m images exported via screenshot). A comparison between CVI measurements based on the different scale types of optical coherence tomography images was conducted using the Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficient. Results: The image with the worst clarity was acquired via the MST, and the CVI was found to be higher in MST images (69.05 +/- 3.21) compared with the other groups. The intraclass correlation coefficient between the CVI values of the 4xMST and pixel scale type images was 0.92, between those of the 4xMST and MST images was 0.33, and between those of the pixel scale type and MST images was 0.44. Conclusion: The optical coherence tomography scale and export method type significantly influence the image resolution, CVI, and choroidal area measurements.