Retinal nerve fibre layer detection in fundus camera images compared to results from optical coherence tomography

Abstract

Two approaches to evaluation of the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) status are compared in the contribution: detection of the local existence of the RNFL in the fundus camera (FC) images versus the objective measurement of the RNFL thickness at identical retinal locations by the optical coherence tomography (OCT). The local detection results based on a compound texture analysis in FC images were compared with the objective OCT measurements considered a contemporary gulden standard, after precisely registering the image data from both modalities. The contribution shows that the reliability of the textural detection in FC images is rather high, reaching the specificity 88.9 % and sensitivity 88.6 % on the so far available material of pairs of FC images and corresponding OCT measurements. The comparison shows the feasibility of the cheap FC image based approach suitable particularly also for screening purposes.