Prevention of Image Quality Degradation in Wider Field Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography Images Via Image Averaging.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kawai K
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8590158 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ImportanceImaging of the choriocapillaris in vivo is challenging with existing technology. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), if optimized, could make the imaging less challenging.ObjectiveTo investigate multiple en face image averaging on OCTA images of the choriocapillaris.Design, setting, and participantsObservational, cross-sectional case series at a referral institutional practice in Los Angeles, California. From the original cohort of 21 healthy individuals, 17 normal eyes of 17 participants were included in the study. The study dates were August to September 2016.ExposuresAll participants underwent OCTA imaging of the macula covering a 3 × 3-mm area using OCTA software (Cirrus 5000 with AngioPlex; Carl Zeiss Meditec). One eye per participant was repeatedly imaged to obtain 9 OCTA cube scan sets. Registration was first performed using superficial capillary plexus images, and this transformation was then applied to the choriocapillaris images. The 9 registered choriocapillaris images were then averaged. Quantitative parameters were measured on binarized OCTA images and compared with the unaveraged OCTA images.Main outcome and measureVessel caliber measurement.ResultsSeventeen eyes of 17 participants (mean [SD] age, 35.1 [6.0] years; 9 [53%] female; and 9 [53%] of white race/ethnicity) with sufficient image quality were included in this analysis. The single unaveraged images demonstrated a granular appearance, and the vascular pattern was difficult to discern. After averaging, en face choriocapillaris images showed a meshwork appearance. The mean (SD) diameter of the vessels was 22.8 (5.8) µm (range, 9.6-40.2 µm). Compared with the single unaveraged images, the averaged images showed more flow voids (1423 flow voids [95% CI, 967-1909] vs 1254 flow voids [95% CI, 825-1683], P < .001), smaller average size of the flow voids (911 [95% CI, 301-1521] µm2 vs 1364 [95% CI, 645-2083] µm2, P < .001), and greater vessel density (70.7% [95% CI, 61.9%-79.5%] vs 61.9% [95% CI, 56.0%-67.8%], P < .001). The distribution of the number vs sizes of the flow voids was skewed in both unaveraged and averaged images. A linear log-log plot of the distribution showed a more homogeneous distribution in the averaged images compared with the unaveraged images.Conclusions and relevanceMultiple en face averaging can improve visualization of the choriocapillaris on OCTA images, transforming the images from a granular appearance to a level where the intervascular spaces can be resolved in healthy volunteers.
| S-EPMC5710392 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesTo assess the effect of image registration and averaging on the visualization and quantification of the radial peripapillary capillary (RPC) network on optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).MethodsTwenty-two healthy controls were imaged with a commercial OCTA system (AngioVue, Optovue, Inc.). Ten 10x10° scans of the optic disc were obtained, and the most superficial layer (50-μm slab extending from the inner limiting membrane) was extracted for analysis. Rigid registration was achieved using ImageJ, and averaging of each 2 to 10 frames was performed in five ~2x2° regions of interest (ROI) located 1° from the optic disc margin. The ROI were automatically skeletonized. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), number of endpoints and mean capillary length from the skeleton, capillary density, and mean intercapillary distance (ICD) were measured for the reference and each averaged ROI. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to assess statistical significance. Three patients with primary open angle glaucoma were also imaged to compare RPC density to controls.ResultsQualitatively, vessels appeared smoother and closer to histologic descriptions with increasing number of averaged frames. Quantitatively, number of endpoints decreased by 51%, and SNR, mean capillary length, capillary density, and ICD increased by 44%, 91%, 11%, and 4.5% from single frame to 10-frame averaged, respectively. The 10-frame averaged images from the glaucomatous eyes revealed decreased density correlating to visual field defects and retinal nerve fiber layer thinning.ConclusionsOCTA image registration and averaging is a viable and accessible method to enhance the visualization of RPCs, with significant improvements in image quality and RPC quantitative parameters. With this technique, we will be able to non-invasively and reliably study RPC involvement in diseases such as glaucoma.
| S-EPMC5222511 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:To analyze quality and frequency of OCTA artifacts and to evaluate their impact on the interpretability of OCTA images. DESIGN:75 patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR), retinal artery occlusion (RAO), retinal vein occlusion (RVO), or neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and healthy controls were enrolled in this cross-sectional study in the outpatient department of a tertiary eye care center. METHODS:All participants underwent an OCTA examination (spectral domain OCT Cirrus 5000 equipped with the AngioPlex module). OCTA scans were analyzed independently by two experienced ophthalmologists. Frequency of various artifacts for the entire OCTA scan and for different segmentation layers and the grading of OCTA interpretability were investigated. RESULTS:The analysis of 75 eyes of 38 women and 37 men between 24 and 94 years were included. Six eyes had no retinal disease, 19 eyes had nAMD, 16 had DR, 19 eyes had RVO, and 15 eyes showed RAO. A macular edema (ME) was present in 40 of the diseased eyes. Projection artifacts occurred in all eyes in any structure below the superficial retinal vessel layer, segmentation and motion artifacts were found in 55% (41/75) and 49% (37/75) of eyes, respectively. Other artifacts occurred less frequently. Segmentation artifacts were significantly more frequent in diseased than in healthy eyes (p<0.01). Qualitative assessment of OCTA images was graded as excellent in 65% and sufficient in 25% of cases, adding up to 91% images deemed acceptable for examination. Presence of ME was associated with a significantly poorer interpretability (p<0.01). CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE:Various artifacts appear at different frequencies in OCTA images. Nevertheless, a qualitative assessment of the OCTA images is almost always possible. Good knowledge of possible artifacts and critical analysis of the complete OCTA dataset are essential for correct clinical interpretation and determining a precise clinical diagnosis.
| S-EPMC6347178 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) has been widely used for en face visualization of the microvasculature, but is challenged for real three-dimensional (3-D) topologic imaging due to the "tail" artifacts that appear below large vessels. Further, OCTA is generally incapable of differentiating descending arterioles from ascending venules. We introduce a normalized field autocorrelation function-based OCTA (g1-OCTA), which minimizes the tail artifacts and is capable of distinguishing penetrating arterioles from venules in the 3-D image. g1 ( τ ) is calculated from repeated optical coherence tomography (OCT) acquisitions for each spatial location. The decay amplitude of g1 ( τ ) is retrieved to represent the dynamics for each voxel. To account for the small g1 ( τ ) decay in capillaries where red blood cells are flowing slowly and discontinuously, Intralipid is injected to enhance the OCT signal. We demonstrate that the proposed technique realizes 3-D OCTA with negligible tail projections and the penetrating arteries are readily identified. In addition, compared to regular OCTA, the proposed g1-OCTA largely increased the depth-of-field. This technique provides a more accurate rendering of the vascular 3-D anatomy and has the potential for more quantitative characterization of vascular networks.
| S-EPMC6414735 | biostudies-literature
Project description:PurposeWe evaluated the repeatability of wide-field en face swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA) in healthy subjects.MethodsHealthy subjects underwent two imaging sessions, on average 8 days apart, with a 100 kHz SS-OCTA instrument. The imaging protocol included a central 3 × 3 and 12 × 12 mm scans of the four quadrants resulting in more than a 70° wide-field OCTA of the posterior pole. Quantitative analysis was performed using the inbuilt Macular Density Algorithm Version v0.6.1 and AngioTool software. Consistency for the foveal avascular zone (FAZ), vessel density, and perfusion density of the superficial and deep capillary plexus slabs and the wide-field OCTA superficial slab, and the number of artefacts on the wide-field images were assessed.ResultsA total of 21 healthy volunteers (seven men and 14 women; mean age 32 years; range, 18-61; standard deviation, 10.28 years) were included in this analysis. Internal consistency was highest for FAZ area with an intraclass correlation (ICC) = 0.998 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.997-0.999), a FAZ perimeter with an ICC = 0.995 (95% CI, 0.990-0.997), a FAZ circularity with an ICC= 0.976 (95% CI, 0.956-0.987), followed by the vessel density of the inner ring in the superficial slab with an ICC = 0.834 (95% CI, 0.691-0.911), and a vessel density of the inner ring in the deep slab with an ICC = 0.523 (95% CI, 0.113-0.744).The reproducibility of the average vessels length of the wide-field OCTA cropped images was strong (ICC = 0.801; 95% CI, 0.624-0.895), followed by the reproducibility of total number of junctions (ICC = 0.795; 95% CI, 0.613-0.892) and the vessels percentage area (ICC = 0.662; 95% CI, 0.361-0.821).ConclusionsThe level of reproducibility for assessing the microvascular anatomy in wide-field OCTA is strong and can be used to quantify microvascular changes over time. Refinements in analysis strategies and a consensus of which parameters are most useful for quantitative assessment of wide-field OCTA images would be useful in the future.Translational relevanceThese findings bridge the gap between basic imaging research and clinical use for quantitative wide-field OCTA.
| S-EPMC6502067 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Binarization is a critical step in analysis of retinal optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images, but the repeatability of metrics produced from various binarization methods has not been fully assessed. This study set out to examine the repeatability of OCTA quantification metrics produced using different binarization thresholding methods, all of which have been applied in previous studies, across multiple devices and plexuses. Successive 3 × 3 mm foveal OCTA images of 13 healthy eyes were obtained on three different devices. For each image, contrast adjustments, 3 image processing techniques (linear registration, histogram normalization, and contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization), and 11 binarization thresholding methods were independently applied. Vessel area density (VAD) and vessel length were calculated for retinal vascular images. Choriocapillaris (CC) images were quantified for VAD and flow deficit metrics. Repeatability, measured using the intra-class correlation coefficient, was inconsistent and generally not high (ICC < 0.8) across binarization thresholds, devices, and plexuses. In retinal vascular images, local thresholds tended to incorrectly binarize the foveal avascular zone as white (i.e., wrongly indicating flow). No image processing technique analyzed consistently resulted in highly repeatable metrics. Across contrast changes, retinal vascular images showed the lowest repeatability and CC images showed the highest.
| S-EPMC7505834 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) performs non-invasive visualization and characterization of microvasculature in research and clinical applications mainly in ophthalmology and dermatology. A wide variety of instruments, imaging protocols, processing methods and metrics have been used to describe the microvasculature, such that comparing different study outcomes is currently not feasible. With the goal of contributing to standardization of OCTA data analysis, we report a user-friendly, open-source toolbox, OCTAVA (OCTA Vascular Analyzer), to automate the pre-processing, segmentation, and quantitative analysis of en face OCTA maximum intensity projection images in a standardized workflow. We present each analysis step, including optimization of filtering and choice of segmentation algorithm, and definition of metrics. We perform quantitative analysis of OCTA images from different commercial and non-commercial instruments and samples and show OCTAVA can accurately and reproducibly determine metrics for characterization of microvasculature. Wide adoption could enable studies and aggregation of data on a scale sufficient to develop reliable microvascular biomarkers for early detection, and to guide treatment, of microvascular disease.
| S-EPMC8659314 | biostudies-literature
Project description:PurposeTo generate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) images with associated ground truth manual segmentations, and to establish a standard for OCTA image segmentation by surveying a broad range of state-of-the-art vessel enhancement and binarization procedures.MethodsHandcrafted filters and neural network architectures were used to perform vessel enhancement. Thresholding methods and machine learning approaches were applied to obtain the final binarization. Evaluation was performed by using pixelwise metrics and newly proposed topological metrics. Finally, we compare the error in the computation of clinically relevant vascular network metrics (e.g., foveal avascular zone area and vessel density) across segmentation methods.ResultsOur results show that, for the set of images considered, deep learning architectures (U-Net and CS-Net) achieve the best performance (Dice = 0.89). For applications where manually segmented data are not available to retrain these approaches, our findings suggest that optimally oriented flux (OOF) is the best handcrafted filter (Dice = 0.86). Moreover, our results show up to 25% differences in vessel density accuracy depending on the segmentation method used.ConclusionsIn this study, we derive and validate the first open dataset of retinal parafoveal OCTA images with associated ground truth manual segmentations. Our findings should be taken into account when comparing the results of clinical studies and performing meta-analyses. Finally, we release our data and source code to support standardization efforts in OCTA image segmentation.Translational relevanceThis work establishes a standard for OCTA retinal image segmentation and introduces the importance of evaluating segmentation performance in terms of clinically relevant metrics.
| S-EPMC7718823 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Devices that perform wide field-of-view (FOV) precision optical scanning are important for endoscopic assessment and diagnosis of luminal organ disease such as in gastroenterology. Optical scanning for in vivo endoscopic imaging has traditionally relied on one or more proximal mechanical actuators, limiting scan accuracy and imaging speed. There is a need for rapid and precise two-dimensional (2D) microscanning technologies to enable the translation of benchtop scanning microscopies to in vivo endoscopic imaging. We demonstrate a new cycloid scanner in a tethered capsule for ultrahigh speed, side-viewing optical coherence tomography (OCT) endomicroscopy in vivo. The cycloid capsule incorporates two scanners: a piezoelectrically actuated resonant fiber scanner to perform a precision, small FOV, fast scan and a micromotor scanner to perform a wide FOV, slow scan. Together these scanners distally scan the beam circumferentially in a 2D cycloid pattern, generating an unwrapped 1 mm × 38 mm strip FOV. Sequential strip volumes can be acquired with proximal pullback to image centimeter-long regions. Using ultrahigh speed 1.3 ?m wavelength swept-source OCT at a 1.17 MHz axial scan rate, we imaged the human rectum at 3 volumes/s. Each OCT strip volume had 166 × 2322 axial scans with 8.5 ?m axial and 30 ?m transverse resolution. We further demonstrate OCT angiography at 0.5 volumes/s, producing volumetric images of vasculature. In addition to OCT applications, cycloid scanning promises to enable precision 2D optical scanning for other imaging modalities, including fluorescence confocal and nonlinear microscopy.
| S-EPMC5909979 | biostudies-literature
Project description:PurposeTo compare swept source OCTA device, with and without the extended field imaging (EFI) technique, to standard fluorescein angiography (FA) in the clinical practice.MethodsConsecutive patients with vascular disorder patients underwent FA with 55-degree lens (Spectralis Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) and OCTA with the prototype PlexElite (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA) using a 12 mm x 12 mm volume scan pattern centered on the fovea and a prototype of + 20.00-diopter designed specifically by Zeiss. The imaging methods were compared for visible field of view, extension of non-perfused areas, presence and number of neovessels, vessel density (VD) and fractal dimension (FD).ResultsForty-three eyes of 27 patients were included. The mean extension ratio of EFI SS-OCTA compared to SS-OCTA without EFI and FA were 1.97 ± 0.02 and 0.85 ± 0.01. The mean extension of non-perfused areas with EFI SS-OCTA (34.22 ± 33.4 mm2) was significantly higher than SS-OCTA without EFI (20.46 ± 18.70 mm2), and with FA (27.55 ± 4.4 mm2). The mean VD and FD of EFI SS-OCTA were significantly different compared to SS-OCT without EFI.ConclusionsEFI SS-OCTA captured larger areas than SS-OCTA without EFI and FA. OCTA in a single shot is able to obtain more information of the retina without the use of montage techniques. Despite the determination of retinal ischemia seems to be easier and more accurate using EFI SS-OCTA, FA offers more details of the perfusion status of the retina.
| S-EPMC6456247 | biostudies-literature