Abstract

The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is essential for the survival and function of retinal photoreceptor cells. RPE dysfunction causes various retinal diseases including age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Clinical studies on ES/iPS cell-derived RPE transplantation for RPE dysfunction-triggered diseases are currently underway. Quantification of the diseased RPE area is important to evaluate disease progression or the therapeutic effect of RPE transplantation. However, there are no standard protocols. To address this issue, we developed a 2-step software that enables objective and efficient quantification of RPE-disease area changes by analyzing the early-phase hyperfluorescent area in fluorescein angiography (FA) images. We extracted the Abnormal region. This extraction was based on deep learning-based discrimination. We scored the binarized extracted area using an automated program. Our program’s performance for the same eye from the serial image captures was within 3.1 ± 7.8% error. In progressive AMD, the trend was consistent with human assessment, even when FA images from two different visits were compared. This method was applicable to quantifying RPE-disease area changes over time, evaluating iPSC-RPE transplantation images, and a disease other than AMD. Our program may contribute to the assessment of the clinical course of RPE-disease areas in routine clinics and reduce the workload of researchers.

Details

Title
Automated evaluation of retinal pigment epithelium disease area in eyes with age-related macular degeneration
Author
Motozawa Naohiro 1 ; Miura Takuya 2 ; Ochiai Koji 2 ; Yamamoto Midori 3 ; Horinouchi Takaaki 2 ; Tsuzuki Taku 4 ; Kanda, Genki N 5 ; Ozawa Yosuke 4 ; Tsujikawa Akitaka 6 ; Takahashi, Koichi 2 ; Takahashi, Masayo 7 ; Kurimoto Yasuo 3 ; Maeda Tadao 3 ; Mandai Michiko 3 

 Kobe City Eye Hospital, Kobe, Japan; Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Kyoto, Japan (GRID:grid.258799.8) (ISNI:0000 0004 0372 2033) 
 RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Laboratory for Biologically Inspired Computing, Suita, Japan (GRID:grid.508743.d) 
 Kobe City Eye Hospital, Kobe, Japan (GRID:grid.508743.d) 
 Epistra Inc., Minato-ku, Japan (GRID:grid.508743.d) 
 Kobe City Eye Hospital, Kobe, Japan (GRID:grid.508743.d); RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Laboratory for Biologically Inspired Computing, Suita, Japan (GRID:grid.508743.d) 
 Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Kyoto, Japan (GRID:grid.258799.8) (ISNI:0000 0004 0372 2033) 
 Kobe City Eye Hospital, Kobe, Japan (GRID:grid.508743.d); VCCT Inc., Kobe, Japan (GRID:grid.508743.d) 
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2620903221
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.