Automated Volumetric Segmentation of Microaneurysms on OCT Using Artificial Intelligence

To develop and validate a deep learning-based method for the automated identification and volumetric segmentation of microaneurysms (MAs) in diabetic retinopathy (DR) using OCT.

A total of 125 participants were enrolled, including 20 healthy eyes, 27 with mild NPDR, 30 with moderate NPDR, 30 with severe NPDR, and 18 with PDR.

We obtained multiple repeated 3x3-mm scans from each participant using a commercial 120-kHz spectral-domain OCT system (Solix; Visionix/Optovue, Inc., California, USA), which were registered and averaged to generate high-definition volumes. We developed a 3D deep learning network to segment MAs volumetrically. The input to the network consists of the original OCT volume concatenated with its reflectance-inverted counterpart. Expert graders manually delineated MAs to generate annotations. We evaluated model performance at multiple levels, including voxel-level segmentation, lesion-level detection, and eye-level diagnosis.

In the test dataset (20 healthy, 20 DR eyes), the algorithm demonstrated high voxel-level accuracy, with F1 scores of 79.2% on single volumes and 86.1% on averaged volumes. Lesion-level detection reached an F1 score of 96.0% (single) and 97.1% (averaged), while scan-level diagnostic accuracy for MA presence was 97.5% (single and averaged).

A deep learning-based method can accurately identify and segment MAs volumetrically on OCT, enabling quantification and characterization, and potentially aiding in the diagnosis, monitoring, and management of DR.