Fully automated corneal nerve segmentation algorithm for corneal nerves analysis from in-vivo UHR-OCT images

Zohreh Hosseinaee; Bingyao Tan; Olivera Kralj; Le Han; Alexander Wong; Luigina Sorbara; Kostadinka Bizheva

doi:10.1117/12.2513288

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28 February 2019 Fully automated corneal nerve segmentation algorithm for corneal nerves analysis from in-vivo UHR-OCT images

Zohreh Hosseinaee, Bingyao Tan, Olivera Kralj, Le Han, Alexander Wong, Luigina Sorbara, Kostadinka Bizheva

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Proceedings Volume 10858, Ophthalmic Technologies XXIX; 1085823 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2513288
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2019, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

The corneal sub-basal nerve plexus (SNP) is a network of thin, unmyelinated nerve fibers located between the basal epithelium and the Bowman’s membrane. Both corneal and systemic diseases such as keratoconus and diabetic can alter the nerve fiber density, thickness and tortuosity. Recent developments of cellular resolution OCT technology allowed for in-vivo visualization and mapping of the corneal SNP. We have developed a fully automated algorithm for segmentation of corneal nerves. The performance of the algorithm was tested on a series of enface UHR-OCT images acquired in-vivo from healthy human subjects. The proposed algorithm traces most of the sub-basal corneal nerves correctly. The achieved processing time and tracing quality are the major advantages of the proposed method. Results show the potential application of proposed method for nerve analysis and morphometric quantification of human sub-basal corneal nerves which is an important tool in corneal related diseases.

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Zohreh Hosseinaee, Bingyao Tan, Olivera Kralj, Le Han, Alexander Wong, Luigina Sorbara, and Kostadinka Bizheva "Fully automated corneal nerve segmentation algorithm for corneal nerves analysis from in-vivo UHR-OCT images", Proc. SPIE 10858, Ophthalmic Technologies XXIX, 1085823 (28 February 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2513288

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