Reliability of RTVue, Visante, and slit-lamp adapted ultrasonic pachymetry for central corneal thickness measurement

To evaluate reliability of Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) (RTVue), time-domain OCT (Visante), and slit-lamp adapted ultrasonic pachymetry (SL-US) in the measurement of central corneal thickness (CCT). Thirty healthy volunteers visited our clinic 3 times and fifty eyes were measured by one physician. RTVue and Visante were randomly performed, and then SL-US, in which the ultrasound probe was inserted into the Goldmann tonometry mount, was done. During the second visit, each measurement was repeated 3 times. Measurements on the second visit were averaged, and agreement among the instruments was investigated with Bland-Altman plots. RTVue showed smaller repeatability coefficient than Visante and SL-US (4.7, 8.3, and 7.7 μm, respectively). Intersession reproducibility of RTVue and Visante was worse than their repeatability. CCT of RTVue was estimated to be maximally different by 11.8 μm from CCT of Visante and 8.8 μm from CCT of SL-US. The repeatability coefficient of SL-US was 7.7 μm and its reproducibility was similar to the repeatability. CCT measured by RTVue showed good reliability and generally agreed with Visante and SL-US. SL-US was as reliable as triple touching conventional US even with a single touch on the cornea.