Automatic analysis of corneal nerves imaged using in vivo confocal microscopy

Abstract

Interest has grown over the past decade in using in vivo confocal microscopy to analyse the morphology of corneal nerves and their changes over time. Advances in computational modelling techniques have been applied to automate the estimation of sub‐basal nerve structure. These objective methods have the potential to quantify nerve density (and length), tortuosity, variations in nerve thickness, as well as temporal changes in nerve fibres such as migration patterns. Different approaches to automated nerve analysis, methods proposed and how they were validated in previous literature are reviewed. Improved understanding of these approaches and their limitations will help improve the diagnostic leverage of emerging developments for monitoring the onset and progression of a broad class of systemic diseases, including diabetes.

Key words:

• automatic analysis
• corneal nerves
• in vivo confocal microscopy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to N. Briggs for advice on one of the statistical concepts discussed here. JK was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship.

Notes

a Krippendorff's agreement co‐efficient is a measure of inter‐coder reliability that is sensitive to scale and position, making it more ideal for this application than scale‐invariant statistics like the correlation co‐efficient (see Krippendorff1970).

Additional information

Funding

Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship