Innovative Macula Capillaries Plexuses Visualization with OCTA B-Scan Graph Representation: Transforming OCTA B-Scan into OCTA Graph Representation

Abdel-Razzak Al-Hinnawi; Motasem Al-Latayfeh; Mitra Tavakoli

doi:10.2147/JMDH.S433405

Innovative Macula Capillaries Plexuses Visualization with OCTA B-Scan Graph Representation: Transforming OCTA B-Scan into OCTA Graph Representation

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2023 Nov 15:16:3477-3491. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S433405. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Abdel-Razzak Al-Hinnawi¹, Motasem Al-Latayfeh², Mitra Tavakoli³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Imaging, Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, Isra University, Amman, Jordan.
² Department of Special Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.
³ Exeter Centre of Excellence for Diabetes Research, National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Exeter Clinical Research Facility, and Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK.

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to transform optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) scans into innovative OCTA graphs, serving as novel biomarkers representing the macular vasculature.

Patients and methods: The study included 90 healthy subjects and 39 subjects with various abnormalities (29 with diabetic retinopathy, 5 with age-related macular degeneration, and 5 with choroid neovascularization). OCTA 5µm macular coronal views (MCVs) were generated for each subject, followed by blood vessel segmentation and skeleton processing. Subsequently, the blood vessel density index, blood vessel skeleton index, and blood vessel tortuosity index were computed. The graphs of each metric were plotted against the axial axes of the OCTA B-scan, representing the integrity of vasculature at successive 5µm macular depths.

Results: The results revealed two significant findings. First, the B-scans from OCTA can be transformed into OCTA graphs, yielding three specific OCTA graphs in this study. These graphs provide new biomarkers for assessing the integrity of deep vascular complex (DVC) and superficial vascular complex (SVC) within the macula. Second, a statistically significant difference was observed between normal (n=90) and abnormal (n=39) subjects, with a t-test p-value significantly lower than 0.001. The Mann-Whitney u-test also yielded significant difference but only between the 90 normal and 29 DR subjects.

Conclusion: The novel OCTA graphs offer a unique representation of the macula's SVC and DVC, suggesting their potential in aiding physicians in the diagnosis of eye health within OCTA clinics. Further research is warranted to finalize the shape of these newly derived OCTA graphs and establish their clinical relevance and utility.

Keywords: macula vasculature; medical imaging informatics; medical imaging processing procedures; optical coherence tomography angiography; vision science.