TITLE:
Investigation of changes in thickness and reflectivity from layered retinal structures of healthy and diabetic eyes with optical coherence tomography
AUTHORS:
Wei Gao, Erika Tátrai, Veronika Ölvedy, Boglárka Varga, Lenke Laurik, Anikó Somogyi, Gábor Márk Somfai, Delia Cabrera DeBuc
KEYWORDS:
Optical Coherence Tomography; Rerina, Diabetic Retinopathy; Segmentation; Image Processing
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering,
Vol.4 No.10,
October
17,
2011
ABSTRACT: OCT is usually employed for the measurement of retinal thickness. However, coherent reflected light carries more information characterizing the optical properties of tissue. Therefore, optical property changes may provide further information regarding cellular layers and early damage in ocular diseases. We investigated the possibility of OCT in detecting changes in the optical backscattered signal from layered retinal structures. OCT images were obtained from diabetic patients without retinopathy (DM, n = 38 eyes) or mild diabetic retinopathy (MDR, n = 43 eyes) and normal healthy subjects (n = 74 eyes). The thickness and reflectivity of various layered structures were assessed using a custom-built algorithm. In addition, we evaluated the usefulness of quantifying the reflectivity of layered structures in the detection of retinal damage. Generalized estimating equations considering within-subject inter-eye relations were used to test for differences between the groups. A modified p value of