The Additive Value of Foveal OCT-Based Biometry to Fundus Biomicroscopy for Detecting Macular Pathology Prior to Cataract Surgery

Abstract

To assess the additive value of foveal swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based biometry to the preoperative fundus examinations for diagnosing macular abnormalities in patients scheduled for cataract surgery. Diagnostic testing evaluation. Consecutive patients 50 years of age and older planned for cataract surgery from one institution were retrospectively enrolled. All patients underwent foveal swept-source OCT, and macular spectral domain (SD) OCT scans before pupil dilation as well as dilated fundus biomicroscopy examination. The effectiveness of fundus biomicroscopy examinations, foveal swept-source OCT scans, and the combination of both in identifying macular diseases was analyzed with macular spectral-domain OCT scans as reference. Seventy-eight of the eligible 442 eyes (442 patients) were excluded because of noninterpretable macular spectral-domain OCT OCT scans or foveal swept-source OCT scans. The remaining 364 eyes of 364 patients (mean age 73.59±9.26 years [range 49-96], 172 males) formed the study group. Fundus biomicroscopy alone vs fundus biomicroscopy with the addition of foveal swept-source OCT yielded 36% vs 63% sensitivity, 94% vs 72% specificity, 79% vs 58% positive predictive value (PPV), and 71% vs 76% negative predictive value (NPV), respectively. This diagnostic improvement was significant compared with fundus biomicroscopy alone (P=2.98-8). Combined fundus biomicroscopy and foveal swept-source OCT scans improved the detection of macular abnormalities prior to cataract surgery but it was inferior to macular spectral-domain OCT scans. Additional studies to assess the cost-effectiveness of adding foveal swept-source OCT scan in comparison to macular spectral-domain OCT scan to the preoperative cataract evaluation are required.