Detection of subclinical keratoconus with a validated alternative method to corneal densitometry

Consejo A. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Jiménez-García M. ; Issarti I. ; Rozema J.J.

Resumen: Purpose: To enhance the current standards of subclinical keratoconus screening based on the statistical modeling of the pixel intensity distribution of Scheimpflug images. Methods: Scheimpflug corneal tomographies corresponding to 25 corneal meridians of 60 participants were retrospectively collected and divided into three groups: controls (20 eyes), subclinical keratoconus (20 eyes), and clinical keratoconus (20 eyes). Only right eyes were selected. After corneal segmentation, pixel intensities of the stromal tissue were statistically modeled using a Weibull probability density function from which parameter a (pixel brightness) was derived. Further, data were transformed to polar coordinates, smoothed, and interpolated to build a map of the corneal a parameter. The discriminative power of the method was analyzed using receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: The proposed platform-independent method achieved a higher performance in discriminating subclinical keratoconus from control eyes (90.0% sensitivity, 95.0% specificity, 0.97 area under the curve [AUC]) than the standard method (Belin–Ambrósio enhanced ectasia display), which uses only corneal morphometry (85.0% sensitivity, 85.0% specificity, 0.80 AUC). Conclusions: Analysis of light backscatter at the cornea successfully discriminates subclinical keratoconus from control eyes, upgrading the results previously reported in the literature. Translational Relevance: The proposed methodology has the potential to support clinicians in the detection of keratoconus before showing clinical signs. © 2021 The Authors.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1167/TVST.10.9.32

Año: 2021

Publicado en: Translational Vision Science and Technology 10, 9 (2021), 7212 [9 pp]
ISSN: 2164-2591

Factor impacto JCR: 3.048 (2021)

Categ. JCR: OPHTHALMOLOGY rank: 30 / 62 = 0.484 (2021) - Q2 - T2

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 3.5 - Medicine (Q2) - Engineering (Q2)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.9 - Ophthalmology (Q1) - Biomedical Engineering (Q1)

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Física Aplicada (Dpto. Física Aplicada)