Variability between experts in defining the edge and area of the optic nerve head

Effect of fuzzy partitioning in Crohn's disease classification: a neuro-fuzzy-based approach

Crohn's disease (CD) diagnosis is a tremendously serious health problem due to its ultimately effect on the gastrointestinal tract that leads to the need of complex medical assistance. In this study, the backpropagation neural network fuzzy classifier and a neuro-fuzzy model are combined for diagnosing the CD. Factor analysis is used for data dimension reduction. The effect on the system performance has been investigated when using fuzzy partitioning and dimension reduction. Additionally, further comparison is done between the different levels of the fuzzy partition to reach the optimal performance accuracy level. The performance evaluation of the proposed system is estimated using the classification accuracy and other metrics. The experimental results revealed that the classification with level-8 partitioning provides a classification accuracy of 97.67 %, with a sensitivity and specificity of 96.07 and 100 %, respectively.

[Correlating cup-to-disc ratios measured by HRT-III, SD-OCT and the new color imaging Laguna ONhE procedure]

OBJECTIVE

To examine correlations between cup-to-disc (C/D) ratios determined by the new Laguna ONhE (optic nerve hemoglobin) color imaging procedure, spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT), confocal scanning laser tomography using Heidelberg retina tomography (HRT), and examining retinal images.

METHODS

C/D ratio measurements were made on 154 eyes of 154 subjects (52 healthy controls, 36 with ocular hypertension and 66 with primary open-angle glaucoma) using the Laguna ONhE, HRT-III (Heidelberg Engineering) and OCT Spectralis (Heidelberg Engineering) instruments and photographs of the optic disc were examined by a blinded observer (experienced glaucoma specialist).

RESULTS

Global intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were: 0.379 (95% CI: 0.233-0.508) for Laguna ONhE-HRT, 0.621 (95% CI: 0.513-0.709) for Laguna ONhE-OCT, and 0.558 (95% CI: 0.398-0.678) for the Laguna ONhE-observer, indicating significant agreement in each case (P<.001). The highest ICC was recorded for OCT- observer (0.715; 95% CI: 0.605-0.795).

CONCLUSIONS

C/D ratios measured using the Laguna ONhE procedure correlated well with OCT measurements and retinography measurements made by an experienced observer. Best correlation was observed for OCT versus observer measurements. Agreement was good between the Laguna ONhE, OCT and observer measurements, and was somewhat lower between HRT and the remaining procedures.