Automated detection of choroid boundary and vessels in optical coherence tomography images

Abstract

Structural changes in the choroid, a layer located between the retina and sclera, could indicate various vision impairments. Consequently, ophthalmologists inspect optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans of the posterior section of the eye towards making diagnosis. With a view to assist diagnosis, we propose an automated technique for segmentation of the choroid layer. Specifically, we detect the upper and lower boundaries of the choroid using structural similarity and adaptive Hessian analysis. Subsequently, we detect choroid vessels within those boundaries using a level set method. Experimental results are presented using spectral domain (SD) OCT images.