Multiscale joint segmentation method for retinal optical coherence tomography images using a bidirectional wave algorithm and improved graph theory

Morphology and functional metrics of retinal layers are important biomarkers for many human ophthalmic diseases. Automatic and accurate segmentation of retinal layers is crucial for disease diagnosis and research. To improve the performance of retinal layer segmentation, a multiscale joint segmentation framework for retinal optical coherence tomography (OCT) images based on bidirectional wave algorithm and improved graph theory is proposed. In this framework, the bidirectional wave algorithm was used to segment edge information in multiscale images, and the improved graph theory was used to modify edge information globally, to realize automatic and accurate segmentation of eight retinal layer boundaries. This framework was tested on two public datasets and two OCT imaging systems. The test results show that, compared with other state-of-the-art methods, this framework does not need data pre-training and parameter pre-adjustment on different datasets, and can achieve sub-pixel retinal layer segmentation on a low-configuration computer.