Automatic segmentation of the foveal avascular zone in ophthalmological OCT-A images

PLoS One. 2019 Feb 22;14(2):e0212364. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212364. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Angiography by Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT-A) is a non-invasive retinal imaging modality of recent appearance that allows the visualization of the vascular structure at predefined depths based on the detection of the blood movement through the retinal vasculature. In this way, OCT-A images constitute a suitable scenario to analyze the retinal vascular properties of regions of interest as is the case of the macular area, measuring the characteristics of the foveal vascular and avascular zones. Extracted parameters of this region can be used as prognostic factors that determine if the patient suffers from certain pathologies (such as diabetic retinopathy or retinal vein occlusion, among others), indicating the associated pathological degree. The manual extraction of these biomedical parameters is a long, tedious and subjective process, introducing a significant intra and inter-expert variability, which penalizes the utility of the measurements. In addition, the absence of tools that automatically facilitate these calculations encourages the creation of computer-aided diagnosis frameworks that ease the doctor's work, increasing their productivity and making viable the use of this type of vascular biomarkers. In this work we propose a fully automatic system that identifies and precisely segments the region of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) using a novel ophthalmological image modality as is OCT-A. The system combines different image processing techniques to firstly identify the region where the FAZ is contained and, secondly, proceed with the extraction of its precise contour. The system was validated using a representative set of 213 healthy and diabetic OCT-A images, providing accurate results with the best correlation with the manual measurements of two experts clinician of 0.93 as well as a Jaccard's index of 0.82 of the best experimental case in the experiments with healthy OCT-A images. The method also provided satisfactory results in diabetic OCT-A images, with a best correlation coefficient with the manual labeling of an expert clinician of 0.93 and a Jaccard's index of 0.83. This tool provides an accurate FAZ measurement with the desired objectivity and reproducibility, being very useful for the analysis of relevant vascular diseases through the study of the retinal micro-circulation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Child
  • Diabetic Retinopathy / diagnosis*
  • Diabetic Retinopathy / diagnostic imaging
  • Female
  • Fovea Centralis / diagnostic imaging
  • Fovea Centralis / pathology*
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Ophthalmology
  • Prognosis
  • Tomography, Optical Coherence / methods*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Government of Spain through the DPI2015-69948-R research project. Also, this work has received financial support from the European Union (European Regional Development Fund - ERDF) and the Xunta de Galicia, Centro singular de investigación de Galicia accreditation 2016-2019, Ref. ED431G/01; Grupos de Referencia Competitiva, Ref. ED431C 2016-047 and Instituto de salud Carlos III, Ref. PI-00940. Also, this work has received partial financial support from the Fundación Mutua Madrileña project, Ref. 2017/365.