Glaucomatous progression in series of stereoscopic photographs and Heidelberg retina tomograph images.

OBJECTIVE: To compare optic disc changes using automated analysis of Heidelberg retina tomograph (HRT) images with assessments, by glaucoma specialists, of change in stereoscopic photographs.
METHODS: Baseline and follow-up stereophotographs and corresponding HRT I series of 91 eyes from 56 patients were selected. The selection criteria were sufficiently long, good-quality HRT series (7 visits in > or =70 months of follow-up) and follow-up photographs contemporaneous with the final HRT image. Topographic change analysis (TCA), statistic image mapping (SIM), and linear regression of rim area (RALR) across time were applied to HRT series. Glaucomatous change determined from stereophotographs by expert observers was used as the reference standard.
RESULTS: Expert observers identified 33 eyes (36%) as exhibiting glaucomatous change. Altering HRT progression criteria such that 36% of eyes progressed according to each method resulted in concordance between HRT methods and stereophotograph assessment of 54% for TCA, 65% for SIM, and 67% for RALR (Cohen kappa = 0.05, 0.23, and 0.30, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic curves of the HRT analyses revealed poor precision of HRT analyses to predict stereophotograph-assessed change: areas under the curve were 0.61 for TCA, 0.62 for SIM, and 0.66 for RALR.
CONCLUSIONS: Statistical methods for detecting structural changes in HRT images exhibit only moderate agreement with each other and have poor agreement with expert-assessed change in optic disc stereophotographs.