A deep learning-based classification method for subclinical zonular laxity in AS-OCT images

In this study, we developed and validated a deep learning method for the detection and angular position identification of subclinical zonular laxity using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT).

A total of 600 curated AS-OCT images from 536 patients (600 images) undergoing cataract surgery were evenly stratified into subclinical zonular laxity (n = 300 images from 297 patients) and normal control (n = 300 images from 239 patients) groups. Data were partitioned at the patient level to prevent data leakage, with 60% for training, 15% for validation, and 25% for testing. An additional five clinical cases were used for external validation. We implemented MDCL-Net, a novel classification framework integrating mask-aware feature enhancement, dynamic contextual feature aggregation.

The model achieved an accuracy of 79.72%, an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 86.41%, and an F1-score of 78.93%. Ablation studies confirmed the contribution of each module, and in clinical validation, model-predicted zonular laxity ranges showed good agreement with intraoperative observations across five representative cases.

This work presents the first deep learning method capable of both detecting and spatially localizing subclinical zonular abnormalities in AS-OCT images, demonstrating strong clinical applicability and potential as a reliable preoperative screening tool to enhance surgical planning and safety in cataract procedures.