Statistics of optical coherence tomography data from human retina Journal Article

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Authors: Grzywacz, Norberto Mauricio; De Juan, Joaquín; Ferrone, Claudia; Giannini, Daniela; Huang, David; Koch, Giorgio; Russo, Valentina; Tan, Ou; Bruni, Carlo
Article Title: Statistics of optical coherence tomography data from human retina
Abstract: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has recently become one of the primary methods for noninvasive probing of the human retina. The pseudoimage formed by OCT (the so-called B-scan) varies probabilistically across pixels due to complexities in the measurement technique. Hence, sensitive automatic procedures of diagnosis using OCT may exploit statistical analysis of the spatial distribution of reflectance. In this paper, we perform a statistical study of retinal OCT data. We find that the stretched exponential probability density function can model well the distribution of intensities in OCT pseudoimages. Moreover, we show a small, but significant correlation between neighbor pixels when measuring OCT intensities with pixels of about 5 microm. We then develop a simple joint probability model for the OCT data consistent with known retinal features. This model fits well the stretched exponential distribution of intensities and their spatial correlation. In normal retinas, fit parameters of this model are relatively constant along retinal layers, but varies across layers. However, in retinas with diabetic retinopathy, large spikes of parameter modulation interrupt the constancy within layers, exactly where pathologies are visible. We argue that these results give hope for improvement in statistical pathology-detection methods even when the disease is in its early stages.
Journal Title: IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging
Volume: 29
Issue: 6
ISSN: 1558-254X
Publisher: Unknown  
Date Published: 2010
Start Page: 1224
End Page: 1237
Language: eng
DOI/URL:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20304733

10.1109/TMI.2009.2038375
Notes: undefined; J2: IEEE Trans Med Imaging