Prevalences of segmentation errors and motion artifacts in OCT-angiography differ among retinal diseases

To assess the prevalences of segmentation errors and motion artifacts in optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) in different retinal diseases

In a retrospective analysis, multimodal retinal imaging including OCT-A was performed in one eye of 57 healthy controls (50.96 ± 22.4 years) and 149 patients (66.42 ± 14.1 years) affected by different chorioretinal diseases: early/intermediate age-related macular degeneration (AMD; n = 26), neovascular AMD (nAMD; n = 22), geographic atrophy due to AMD (GA; n = 6), glaucoma (n = 28), central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC; n = 14), epiretinal membrane (EM; n = 26), retinal vein occlusion (RVO; n = 11), and retinitis pigmentosa (RP; n = 16). Central 3 × 3 mm² OCT-A imaging was performed with active eye-tracking (AngioVue, Optovue). Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and signal strength index (SSI) were recorded. Images were independently evaluated by two graders using the OCT-A motion artifact score (MAS; scores I–IV) as well as a newly introduced segmentation accuracy score (SAS; score I–IIB).

Mean SSI was 63.67 ± 9.2 showing a negative correlation with increasing age (rSp = − 0.42, p < 0.001, n = 206). In the healthy cohort, mean MAS was 1.45 ± 0.8 and segmentation was accurate (SAS I) in all eyes. In eyes with retinal pathologies, mean MAS was 2.1 ± 0.9 (p < 0.001). Lowest MAS was observed in GA (2.67 ± 0.5) and RVO (2.45 ± 1.1). Compared to an accurate segmentation in 100% in healthy subjects, 34.2% (n = 51) of all patients showed highest segmentation quality (p < 0.001). 63.8% showed segmentation errors in more than 5% of all single b-scans in one (SAS IIA, n = 58) or at least two (SAS IIB, n = 40) segmentation boundaries. Highest percentages of inaccurate segmentation (SAS IIA or IIB) were observed in the nAMD group (90.1%). The inner plexiform layer was the segmentation boundary most prone to inaccurate segmentation in all pathologies compared to the inner limiting membrane (ILM) and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) segmentation layer. Incorrect ILM segmentation was only seen in patients with EM.

Prior to both qualitative and quantitative analysis, OCT-A images must be carefully reviewed as motion artifacts and segmentation errors in current OCT-A technology are frequent particularly in pathologically altered maculae.