Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of preventable blindness. Early detection and reliable stage classification are essential to ensure prompt medical interventions. Recent study suggests that the outer retina, i.e., photoreceptors, can be affected by early DR. We demonstrate here the potential of using quantitative OCT features in outer retina for objective detection and stage classification of DR. The OCT intensity change is observed to be mostly sensitive, compared to retina thickness and bandwidth, to DR stages. It is also confirmed that the relative intensity changes of photoreceptor outer segment are more sensitive than inner segment for DR classification.
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