System and method of a process for robust macular thickness analysis using low-cost line-field optical coherence tomography (OCT)

1 . A method of creating a composite retinal thickness map of an eye, comprising:

collecting, by an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device, a set of a plurality of optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume scans of the eye wherein at least one set of the plurality of OCT volume scans are collected by the OCT device by:

segmenting a target upper retinal layer and a target lower retinal layer which is lower than the target upper retinal layer within an OCT volume scan;

determining a thickness map of a candidate between the upper retinal layer and lower retinal layer, and a confidence map associated with the thickness map;

selecting at least one thickness map as a reference thickness map,

wherein the selected reference thickness map is the thickness map that has a highest confidence measure based on the confidence map;

registering remaining at least one thickness map to the reference thickness map; and

selectively combining a region of the thickness map with a corresponding region of the reference thickness map to define a composite retinal thickness map.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selectively combining the region of the thickness map with the corresponding region of the reference thickness map comprises:

identifying a region of low quality within the reference thickness map based on the confidence map; and

replacing the region of low quality with a combination of the corresponding region from an alternate thickness map.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the corresponding region is of higher quality than a low-quality region based on the confidence map.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the confidence map is based on at least one of a corresponding OCT signal quality map or a segmentation confidence map.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the target upper retinal layer is an internal limiting membrane (ILM) layer, and the target lower retinal layer is lower than a retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) layer.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one set of the plurality of volume scans is associated with a corresponding segmentation confidence map wherein the at least one thickness map is registered to the reference thickness map wherein registration includes transforming the corresponding segmentation confidence map based on the at least one thickness map.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein selection of a corresponding region from other thickness maps is enabled by a combination of a weighted average of at least one individual registered map, and wherein a set of weights for the weighted average is based on a corresponding confidence map.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one region of the thickness map of the candidate is selected for processing with information associated with an Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS).

9 . A method of creating a composite retinal thickness map of an eye, comprising:

collecting, by an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device, a set of a plurality of optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume scans of the eye wherein at least one set of the plurality of OCT volume scans are collected by the OCT device by:

segmenting a target upper retinal layer and a target lower retinal layer which is lower than the target upper retinal layer within an OCT volume scan;

determining a thickness map of a candidate between the upper retinal layer and lower retinal layer, and a confidence map associated with the thickness map;

selecting at least one thickness map as a reference thickness map;

registering remaining at least one thickness map to the reference thickness map; and

selectively combining a region of the thickness map with a corresponding region of the reference thickness map using a weighted average function to define a composite retinal thickness map,

wherein the weighted average function is based at least on the confidence map of a selected region of the thickness map.

10 . A remote self-examination system for creating a composite retinal thickness map of an eye, comprising:

an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device for collecting a set of a plurality of OCT volume scans of the eye;

a computing device disposed in the OCT device to process data of at least one set of the plurality of OCT volume scans wherein the computing device is configured to:

segment a target upper retinal layer and a target lower retinal layer lower than the target upper retinal layer within an OCT volume scan;

determine a thickness map of a candidate between the upper retinal layer and lower retinal layer, and a confidence map associated with the thickness map;

select at least one thickness map as a reference thickness map;

register the thickness map to the reference thickness map;

selectively combine a region of the thickness map with a corresponding region of the reference thickness map to define the composite retinal thickness map;

selectively combine the region of the thickness map with the corresponding region of the reference thickness map by:

identifying regions of low quality within the reference thickness map associated with the confidence map,

wherein the confidence map is based on at least one of a corresponding OCT signal quality map or a segmentation confidence map; and

replacing the identified regions of low quality with a combination of a selected corresponding region from an alternate thickness map; and

apply a weighted average function based at least on the confidence map of a selected region of the thickness map.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the OCT device further comprises an electronic communication module to transmit a report based on the defined composite retinal thickness map to a remote health care center.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the computing device is further configured to select the corresponding region that is of higher quality than a low-quality region based on an association of the confidence map to the corresponding region.

13 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the computing device is further configured to select the reference thickness map comprising the thickness map having a highest confidence measure associated with the confidence map.

14 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the region from the thickness map is combined with corresponding regions of the reference thickness map by a weighted average.

15 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the target upper retinal layer is an internal limiting membrane (ILM) layer, and the target lower retinal layer is lower than a retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) layer.

16 . The system of claim 10 , wherein at least one set of volume scans that have been collected is associated with a corresponding segmentation confidence map, and wherein the register of the thickness map to the reference thickness map comprises transformation of a segment of the confidence map to a corresponding thickness map.