Screening and diagnostic system construction for optic neuritis and non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy based on color fundus images using deep learning / 中华眼底病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To construct and evaluate a screening and diagnostic system based on color fundus images and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted screening for optic neuritis (ON) and non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).Methods:A diagnostic test study. From 2016 to 2020, 178 cases 267 eyes of NAION patients (NAION group) and 204 cases 346 eyes of ON patients (ON group) were examined and diagnosed in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University; 513 healthy individuals of 1 160 eyes (the normal control group) with normal fundus by visual acuity, intraocular pressure and optical coherence tomography examination were collected from 2018 to 2020. All 2 909 color fundus images were as the data set of the screening and diagnosis system, including 730, 805, and 1 374 images for the NAION group, ON group, and normal control group, respectively. The correctly labeled color fundus images were used as input data, and the EfficientNet-B0 algorithm was selected for model training and validation. Finally, three systems for screening abnormal optic discs, ON, and NAION were constructed. The subject operating characteristic (ROC) curve, area under the ROC (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and heat map were used as indicators of diagnostic efficacy.Results:In the test data set, the AUC for diagnosing the presence of an abnormal optic disc, the presence of ON, and the presence of NAION were 0.967 [95% confidence interval ( CI) 0.947-0.980], 0.964 (95% CI 0.938-0.979), and 0.979 (95% CI 0.958-0.989), respectively. The activation area of the systems were mainly located in the optic disc area in the decision-making process. Conclusion:Abnormal optic disc, ON and NAION, and screening diagnostic systems based on color fundus images have shown accurate and efficient diagnostic performance.