Method of bioimage data processing for revealing more meaningful anatomic features of diseased tissues

A method for analyzing optical coherence tomography data of an eye, said eye having at least one boundary surface associated therewith, said method comprising:

• acquiring a set of image data of the eye using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device, said device including a light source, a beam splitter for dividing the light along a sample arm and a reference arm, said sample arm further including optical elements to scan the beam over the eye, said OCT device including a detector for receiving light returned from both the sample and the reference arms and generating signals corresponding to 3D image data based on an axial reflection distribution arising from reflecting features in the eye;
• segmenting the 3D image dataset to identify the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE);
• generating a substantially smooth reference surface from the RPE;
• segmenting the 3D image dataset to identify an additional retinal surface;
• calculating the distance between points on the substantially smooth reference surface to points on the at least one additional segmented retinal surface;
• generating an image map of the calculated distances;
• and
• displaying the map or an analysis derived therefrom.