System and method of a process for robust macular thickness analysis using low-cost line-field optical coherence tomography (OCT)

A method of creating a composite retinal thickness map of an eye, comprising:

• collecting, by an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device, a set of a plurality of optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume scans of the eye wherein at least one set of the plurality of OCT volume scans are collected by the OCT device by:
• segmenting a target upper retinal layer and a target lower retinal layer which is lower than the target upper retinal layer within an OCT volume scan;
• determining a thickness map of a candidate between the upper retinal layer and lower retinal layer, and a confidence map associated with the thickness map;
• selecting at least one thickness map as a reference thickness map;
• registering remaining at least one thickness map to the reference thickness map;
• and
• selectively combining a region of the thickness map with a corresponding region of the reference thickness map using a weighted average function to define a composite retinal thickness map,
• wherein the weighted average function is based at least on the confidence map of a selected region of the thickness map.

A remote self-examination system for creating a composite retinal thickness map of an eye, comprising:

• an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device for collecting a set of a plurality of OCT volume scans of the eye;
• a computing device disposed in the OCT device to process data of at least one set of the plurality of OCT volume scans wherein the computing device is configured to:
• segment a target upper retinal layer and a target lower retinal layer lower than the target upper retinal layer within an OCT volume scan;
• determine a thickness map of a candidate between the upper retinal layer and lower retinal layer, and a confidence map associated with the thickness map;
• select at least one thickness map as a reference thickness map;
• register the thickness map to the reference thickness map;
• selectively combine a region of the thickness map with a corresponding region of the reference thickness map to define the composite retinal thickness map;
• selectively combine the region of the thickness map with the corresponding region of the reference thickness map by:
• identifying regions of low quality within the reference thickness map associated with the confidence map,
• wherein the confidence map is based on at least one of a corresponding OCT signal quality map or a segmentation confidence map;
• and
• replacing the identified regions of low quality with a combination of a selected corresponding region from an alternate thickness map;
• and
• apply a weighted average function based at least on the confidence map of a selected region of the thickness map.