A deep learning approach to automatic detection of early glaucoma from visual fields

PURPOSE: To investigate the suitability of multi-scale spatial information in 30(o) visual fields (VF), computed from a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier, for early-glaucoma vs. control discrimination. METHOD: Two data sets of VFs acquired with the OCTOPUS 101 G1 program and the Humphrey Field Analyzer 24–2 pattern were subdivided into control and early-glaucomatous groups, and converted into a new image using a novel voronoi representation to train a custom-designed CNN so to discriminate between control and early-glaucomatous eyes. Saliency maps that highlight what regions of the VF are contributing maximally to the classification decision were computed to provide classification justification. Model fitting was cross-validated and average precision (AP) score performances were computed for our method, Mean Defect (MD), square-root of Loss Variance (sLV), their combination (MD+sLV), and a Neural Network (NN) that does not use convolutional features. RESULTS: CNN achieved the best AP score (0.874±0.095) across all test folds for one data set compared to others (MD = 0.869±0.064, sLV = 0.775±0.137, MD+sLV = 0.839±0.085, NN = 0.843±0.089) and the third best AP score (0.986 ±0.019) on the other one with slight difference from the other methods (MD = 0.986±0.023, sLV = 0.992±0.016, MD+sLV = 0.987±0.017, NN = 0.985±0.017). In general, CNN consistently led to high AP across different data sets. Qualitatively, computed saliency maps appeared to provide clinically relevant information on the CNN decision for individual VFs. CONCLUSION: The proposed CNN offers high classification performance for the discrimination of control and early-glaucoma VFs when compared with standard clinical decision measures. The CNN classification, aided by saliency visualization, may support clinicians in the automatic discrimination of early-glaucomatous and normal VFs.