Research Supports Assessment Method Used in SCORE Study

89 to 91 percent intergrader agreement found for optical coherence tomographic images in regrades

MONDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- The evaluation methods for optical coherence tomographic (OCT) images used in the SCORE study appear suitable for other studies of retinal vein occlusion, according to research published in the November issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Amitha Domalpally, M.D., of the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and colleagues analyzed data related to OCT images taken of subjects involved in the Standard Care versus Corticosteroid for Retinal Vein Occlusion (SCORE) study. The purpose of this study was to assess the grading system for the paper printouts of the OCT images. From 53 subjects, 106 images were randomly selected for annual regrades throughout the study.

The researchers found that the first two regrades had 91 and 89 percent intergrader agreement for OCT quality, categorized as good, fair, borderline, or ungradable. The intraclass correlation for manually measured center point thickness was 0.99 per year. The agreement rate for the presence and location of cystoid spaces was 83 percent in the first year and 76 percent in the second.

"In summary, the reading center methodology for measuring center point thickness and morphologic features on paper OCT images are detailed in this study. The OCT image evaluation procedures used for the SCORE Study reproducibly measured center point thickness and were able to assess morphologic features in patients affected by retinal vein occlusion. This grading methodology can be used for other multicenter longitudinal studies or smaller studies of retinal vein occlusion," the authors conclude.

Allergan Inc, supported the SCORE study.

Abstract
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