Open AccessFramework for quantitative three-dimensional choroidal vasculature analysis using optical coherence tomography
Author(s) -
Ashish Saxena,
Xinwen Yao,
Damon Wing Kee Wong,
Jacqueline Chua,
Marcus Ang,
Quan V. Hoang,
Rupesh Agrawal,
M Girard,
Gemmy Cheung,
Leopold Schmetterer,
Bingyao Tan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.426093
Subject(s) - optical coherence tomography , choroid , retinal , retinal pigment epithelium , ophthalmology , macular degeneration , maculopathy , segmentation , tomography , retina , computer science , medicine , artificial intelligence , optics , retinopathy , radiology , physics , diabetes mellitus , endocrinology
Choroidal vasculature plays an important role in the pathogenesis of retinal diseases, such as myopic maculopathy, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, central serous chorioretinopathy, and ocular inflammatory diseases. Current optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology provides three-dimensional visualization of the choroidal angioarchitecture; however, quantitative measures remain challenging. Here, we propose and validate a framework to segment and quantify the choroidal vasculature from a prototype swept-source OCT (PLEX Elite 9000, Carl Zeiss Meditec, USA) using a 3×3 mm scan protocol centered on the macula. Enface images referenced from the retinal pigment epithelium were reconstructed from the volumetric data. The boundaries of the choroidal volume were automatically identified by tracking the choroidal vessel feature structure over the depth, and a selective sliding window was applied for segmenting the vessels adaptively from attenuation-corrected enface images. We achieved a segmentation accuracy of 96% ± 1% as compared with manual annotation, and a dice coefficient of 0.83 ± 0.04 for repeatability. Using this framework on both control (0.00 D to -2.00 D) and highly myopic (-8.00 D to -11.00 D) eyes, we report a decrease in choroidal vessel volume (p<0.001) in eyes with high myopia.