Automated segmentation of the optic disc margin in 3-D optical coherence tomography images using a graph-theoretic approach

The optic disc margin is of interest due to its use for detecting and managing glaucoma. We developed a method for segmenting the optic disc margin of the optic nerve head (ONH) in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) images using a graph-theoretic approach. A small number of slices surrounding the Bruch's membrane opening (BMO) plane was taken and used for creating planar 2-D projection images. An edge-based cost function - more specifically, a signed edge-based term favoring a dark-to-bright transition in the vertical direction of polar projection images (corresponding to the radial direction in Cartesian coordinates) - was obtained. Information from the segmented vessels was used to suppress the vasculature influence by modifying the polar cost function and remedy the segmentation difficulty due to the presence of large vessels. The graph search was performed in the modified edge-based cost images. The algorithm was tested on 22 volumetric OCT scans. The segmentation results were compared with expert segmentations on corresponding stereo fundus disc photographs. We found a signed mean difference of 0.0058 +/- 0.0706 mm and an unsigned mean difference of 0.1083 +/- 0.0350 mm between the automatic and expert segmentations.