Semantic Segmentation of the Choroid in Swept Source Optical Coherence Tomography Images for Volumetrics

The choroid is a complex vascular tissue that is covered with the retinal pigment epithelium. Ultra high speed swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) provides us with high-resolution cube scan images of the choroid. Robust segmentation techniques are required to reconstruct choroidal volume using SS-OCT images. For automated segmentation, the delineation of the choroidal-scleral (C-S) boundary is key to accurate segmentation. Low contrast of the boundary, scleral canals formed by the vessel and the nerve, and the posterior stromal layer, may cause segmentation errors. Semantic segmentation is one of the applications of deep learning used to classify the parts of images related to the meanings of the subjects. We applied semantic segmentation to choroidal segmentation and measured the volume of the choroid. The measurement results were validated through comparison with those of other segmentation methods. As a result, semantic segmentation was able to segment the C-S boundary and choroidal volume adequately.