OCT-Angiography Face Mask-Associated Artifacts During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Prcis: Face mask wearing has no significant effects on artifacts or vessel density measurements in optic nerve head (ONH) and macular optical coherence tomography-angiography (OCT-A) scans.

Purpose: The aim was to assess the difference in area of artifacts observed in optical OCT-A scans with and without face mask wear and to verify if mask wear interferes with OCT-A vessel density measurements.

Subjects and controls: A total of 64 eyes of 10 healthy subjects, 4 ocular hypertensive, 8 glaucoma suspects, and 17 glaucoma patients were included.

Materials and methods: High-density ONH and macula OCT-A scans were obtained in patients with and without surgical masks. Seven different artifacts (motion, decentration, defocus, shadow, segmentation failure, blink, and Z-offset) were quantitatively evaluated by 2 trained graders. The changes in the area (% of scan area) of artifacts, without and with mask wearing, and differences of vessel density were evaluated.

Results: Trends of increasing motion artifact area for the ONH scans [4.23 (-0.52, 8.98) %, P=0.08] and defocus artifact area for the macular scans [1.06 (-0.14, 2.26) %, P=0.08] were found with face mask wear. However, there were no significant differences in the mean % area of any artifacts (P>0.05 for all). Further, the estimated mean difference in vessel density in images acquired without and with masks was not significant for any type of artifact.

Conclusion: Face mask wearing had no significant effect on area of artifacts or vessel density measurements. OCT-A vessel density measurements can be acquired reliably with face mask wear during the pandemic.