Abstract
Purpose :
To determine if deep learning could be utilized to distinguish normal OCT images from images of patients with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD).
Methods :
Automated extraction of an OCT imaging database was performed and linked to clinical endpoints from the EMR. OCT macular volumes were obtained by Heidelberg Spectralis, and each volume was linked to EMR clinical endpoints extracted from EPIC. The central 11 images were selected from each OCT volume of two cohorts of patients: normal and AMD. Cross-validation was performed using a random subset of patients. Receiver operator curves (ROC) were constructed at an independent image level, macular OCT volume level, and patient level.
Results :
Of a recent extraction of 2.6 million OCT images linked to clinical datapoints from the EMR, 52,690 normal macular OCT images and 48,312 AMD macular OCT images were selected. A deep neural network was trained to categorize images as either normal or AMD. At the image level, we achieved an area under the ROC of 92.78% with an accuracy of 87.63%. At the OCT volume level, we achieved an area under the ROC of 93.83% with an accuracy of 88.98%. At a patient level, we achieved an area under the ROC of 97.45% with an accuracy of 93.45%. Peak sensitivity and specificity with optimal cutoffs were 92.64% and 93.69% respectively.
Conclusions :
Deep learning techniques achieve high accuracy and is effective as a new image classification technique. These findings have important implications in utilizing OCT in automated screening and the development of computer aided diagnosis tools in the future.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.