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Retinal vascular morphological characteristics in diabetic retinopathy: an artificial intelligence study using a transfer learning system to analyze ultra-wide field images.
- Source :
-
International journal of ophthalmology [Int J Ophthalmol] 2024 Jun 18; Vol. 17 (6), pp. 1001-1006. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jun 18 (Print Publication: 2024). - Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Aim: To investigate the morphological characteristics of retinal vessels in patients with different severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and in patients with or without diabetic macular edema (DME).<br />Methods: The 239 eyes of DR patients and 100 eyes of healthy individuals were recruited for the study. The severity of DR patients was graded as mild, moderate and severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) according to the international clinical diabetic retinopathy (ICDR) disease severity scale classification, and retinal vascular morphology was quantitatively analyzed in ultra-wide field images using RU-net and transfer learning methods. The presence of DME was determined by optical coherence tomography (OCT), and differences in vascular morphological characteristics were compared between patients with and without DME.<br />Results: Retinal vessel segmentation using RU-net and transfer learning system had an accuracy of 99% and a Dice metric of 0.76. Compared with the healthy group, the DR group had smaller vessel angles (33.68±3.01 vs 37.78±1.60), smaller fractal dimension (Df) values (1.33±0.05 vs 1.41±0.03), less vessel density (1.12±0.44 vs 2.09±0.36) and fewer vascular branches (206.1±88.8 vs 396.5±91.3), all P <0.001. As the severity of DR increased, Df values decreased, P =0.031. No significant difference between the DME and non-DME groups were observed in vascular morphological characteristics.<br />Conclusion: In this study, an artificial intelligence retinal vessel segmentation system is used with 99% accuracy, thus providing with relatively satisfactory performance in the evaluation of quantitative vascular morphology. DR patients have a tendency of vascular occlusion and dropout. The presence of DME does not compromise the integral retinal vascular pattern.<br />Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: Deng XY, None; Liu H, None; Zhang ZX, None; Li HX, None; Wang J, None; Chen YQ, None; Mao JB, None; Sun MZ, None; Shen LJ, None.<br /> (International Journal of Ophthalmology Press.)
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2222-3959
- Volume :
- 17
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- International journal of ophthalmology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 38895683
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.18240/ijo.2024.06.03