Analysis of posterior retinal layers in spectral optical coherence tomography images of the normal retina and retinal pathologies

We present a computationally efficient, semiautomated method for analysis of posterior retinal layers in three-dimensional (3-D) images obtained by spectral optical coherence tomography (SOCT). The method consists of two steps: segmentation of posterior retinal layers and analysis of their thickness and distance from an outer retinal contour (ORC), which is introduced to approximate the normal position of external interface of the healthy retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). The algorithm is shown to effectively segment posterior retina by classifying every pixel in the SOCT tomogram using the similarity of its surroundings to a reference set of model pixels from user-selected area(s). Operator intervention is required to assess the quality of segmentation. Thickness and distance maps from the segmented layers and their analysis are presented for healthy and pathological retinas. (C) 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.