Research and applications: Automatic glaucoma diagnosis through medical imaging informatics

Background

Computer-aided diagnosis for screening utilizes computer-based analytical methodologies to process patient information. Glaucoma is the leading irreversible cause of blindness. Due to the lack of an effective and standard screening practice, more than 50% of the cases are undiagnosed, which prevents the early treatment of the disease.

Objective

To design an automatic glaucoma diagnosis architecture automatic glaucoma diagnosis through medical imaging informatics (AGLAIA-MII) that combines patient personal data, medical retinal fundus image, and patient''s genome information for screening.

Materials and methods

2258 cases from a population study were used to evaluate the screening software. These cases were attributed with patient personal data, retinal images and quality controlled genome data. Utilizing the multiple kernel learning-based classifier, AGLAIA-MII, combined patient personal data, major image features, and important genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) features.

Results and discussion

Receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted to compare AGLAIA-MII''s performance with classifiers using patient personal data, images, and genome SNP separately. AGLAIA-MII was able to achieve an area under curve value of 0.866, better than 0.551, 0.722 and 0.810 by the individual personal data, image and genome information components, respectively. AGLAIA-MII also demonstrated a substantial improvement over the current glaucoma screening approach based on intraocular pressure.

Conclusions

AGLAIA-MII demonstrates for the first time the capability of integrating patients’ personal data, medical retinal image and genome information for automatic glaucoma diagnosis and screening in a large dataset from a population study. It paves the way for a holistic approach for automatic objective glaucoma diagnosis and screening.