Identification of Prognostic Factors and Predicting the Therapeutic Effect of Laser Photocoagulation for DME Treatment

Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy is among the most severe complications of diabetes, most often leading to rapid and irreversible vision loss. The laser coagulation procedure, which consists of applying microburns to the fundus, has proven to be an effective method for treating diabetic retinopathy. Unfortunately, modern research does not pay enough attention to the study of the arrangement of microburns in the edema area—One of the key factors affecting the quality of therapy. The aim of this study was to propose a computational decision-making support system for retina laser photocoagulation based on the analysis of photocoagulation plans. Firstly, we investigated a set of prognostic factors based on 29 features describing the geometric arrangement of coagulates. Secondly, we designed a technology for the intelligent analysis of the photocoagulation plan that allows the effectiveness of the treatment to be predicted. The studies were carried out using a large database of fundus images from 108 patients collected in clinical trials. The results demonstrated a high classification accuracy at a level of over 85% using the proposed prognostic factors. Moreover, the designed technology proved the superiority of the proposed algorithms for the automatic arrangement of coagulates, predicting a 99% chance of a positive therapeutic effect.