Validation of the Use of Automated and Manual Quantitative Analysis of Corneal Nerve Plexus Following Refractive Surgery.
Jia Ying ChinLily Wei Yun YangAngel Jung Se JiMario NubileLeonardo MastropasquaJohn Carson AllenJodhbir S MehtaYu-Chi LiuPublished in: Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) (2020)
Following refractive surgery, the cornea is denervated and re-innervated, hence a reproducible tool to objectively quantify this change is warranted. This study aimed to determine the repeatability and reproducibility of corneal nerve quantification between automated (ACCMetrics) and manual software (CCMetrics) following refractive surgery. A total of 1007 in vivo confocal microscopy images from 20 post-small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) or post-laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) patients were evaluated by two independent observers using CCMetrics for corneal nerve fibre density (CNFD), corneal nerve branch density (CNBD), and corneal nerve fibre length (CNFL). Intra-observer and inter-observer reproducibility and repeatability, as well as agreement and correlation between the measurements obtained by ACCMetrics and CCMetrics, were assessed. We found that CNFL demonstrated the best intra- and inter-observer agreement followed by CNFD (intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.799 and 0.740, respectively for CNFL; 0.757 and 0.728 for CNFD). CNBD demonstrated poorest intra- and inter-observer ICC. There was an underestimation in ACCMetrics measurements compared to CCMetrics measurements, although the differences were not significant. Our data suggested that both automated and manual methods can be used as reliable tools for the evaluation of corneal nerve status following refractive surgery. However, the measurements obtained with different methods are not interchangeable.
Keyphrases
- cataract surgery
- minimally invasive
- optical coherence tomography
- coronary artery bypass
- peripheral nerve
- wound healing
- deep learning
- machine learning
- surgical site infection
- high throughput
- end stage renal disease
- chronic kidney disease
- magnetic resonance imaging
- magnetic resonance
- computed tomography
- electronic health record
- mass spectrometry
- acute coronary syndrome
- ultrasound guided
- patient reported