Automatic detection of folds and wrinkles due to swelling of the optic disc

Abstract

We propose a method for detecting mechanically induced wrinkles that present themselves around the optic disc as a result of swelling. Folds and wrinkles have recently been found to be useful features for diagnosing optic disc swelling and for differentiating papilledema (optic nerve swelling due to raised intracranial pressure) from pseudopapilledema. A total of 22 patients were diagnosed with varying degrees and causes of optic disc swelling, with 3D spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images obtained. The images were used to create fold-enhanced 2D images. Features were extracted pertaining to the orientation, Gabor responses, Fourier responses, and coherence to train a pixel-level classifier to distinguish between folds, vessels, image artifacts, and background. An area under the curve of 0.804 was achieved for the classification.