Reproducibility of the measurement of peripapillary nerve fiber layer thickness by optical coherence tomography

Objective:To assess the Reproducibility of the measurement of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness by optical coherence tomography on normal eyes. 13 normal eyes were imaged by two operators.Five 360° circular scans with a diameter 3.46mm centered on the optic disc were obtained in each scanning, and 3 high-quality images in each day were picked up to form mean RNFL thickness.Images were obtained on three consecutive days.Variance and coefficient of variation were calculated for quadrantic retinal nerve fiber layer obtained from the mean image. Results:The means of CV for total RNFL thickness were 6.10±3.15% and 5.10±3.23% in two operators.The means of CV of nasal RNFL were 9.75±6.81%、10.15±7.91%.Interoperator reproducibility was good with statistically similar variance for all quadrantic retinal nerve fiber layer parameters (P=0.65～0.95)Differences in mean retinal nerve fiber layer thickness were not statistically significant between operators for all eyes. Conclusions:Peripapillary RNFL thickness using optical coherence tomography has good Intraoperator and Interoperator reproducibility.Nasal RNFL was the most variable sector.