Retinal disease biomarker prediction by stacking slices of 3d oct image to reshape into 2d image and applying trained feature extractor and cnn

Abstract

Deep learning methods and systems for detecting biomarkers within optical coherence tomography volumes using such deep learning methods and systems are provided. Embodiments predict the presence or absence of clinically useful biomarkers in OCT images using deep neural networks. The lack of available training data for canonical deep learning approaches is overcome in embodiments by leveraging a large external dataset consisting of foveal scans using transfer learning. Embodiments represent the three-dimensional OCT volume by 'tiling' each slice into a single two dimensional image, and adding an additional component to encourage the network to consider local spatial structure. Methods and systems, according to embodiments are able to identify the presence or absence of AMD-related biomarkers on par with clinicians. Beyond identifying biomarkers, additional models could be trained, according to embodiments, to predict the progression of these biomarkers over time.