Influence of image compression on the interpretation of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography in exudative age-related macular degeneration

Purpose

To evaluate the effect of image compression of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) images in the examination of eyes with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Methods

Thirty eyes from 30 patients who were diagnosed with exudative AMD were included in this retrospective observational case series. The horizontal OCT scans centered at the center of the fovea were conducted using spectral-domain OCT. The images were exported to Tag Image File Format (TIFF) and 100, 75, 50, 25 and 10% quality of Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format. OCT images were taken before and after intravitreal ranibizumab injections, and after relapse. The prevalence of subretinal and intraretinal fluids was determined. Differences in choroidal thickness between the TIFF and JPEG images were compared with the intra-observer variability.

Results

The prevalence of subretinal and intraretinal fluids was comparable regardless of the degree of compression. However, the chorio–scleral interface was not clearly identified in many images with a high degree of compression. In images with 25 and 10% quality of JPEG, the difference in choroidal thickness between the TIFF images and the respective JPEG images was significantly greater than the intra-observer variability of the TIFF images (P=0.029 and P=0.024, respectively).

Conclusions

In OCT images of eyes with AMD, 50% of the quality of the JPEG format would be an optimal degree of compression for efficient data storage and transfer without sacrificing image quality.