# Ocular Axial Length Prediction Based on Visual Interpretation of Retinal Fundus Images via Deep Neural Network

Yeonwoo Jeong, Boram Lee, Jae Ho Han, Jaeryung Oh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

## Abstract

Ocular axial length (AL) is an important property of eyes used for determining their health prior to surgery. Estimation of AL is also crucial while making artificial lenses to replace impaired natural lenses. However, accurate measurement of AL requires a costly and bulky benchtop optical system. The complex structural features of eyes can be captured by fundus images, which can be easily captured nowadays with portable cameras. Here, we suggest a deep learning method for predicting AL based on fundus images with evidence of decision. This visual interpretation of predictions is achieved by post-processing, separated from the training process, to ensure that the architecture can be freely designed. Through the visualization technique, discriminative regions on input images can be localized to demonstrate specific areas of interest for predictions. In the experiments, we found a significant relationship between the fundus images and AL with achieving a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.67 and accuracy of 90%, within an error margin of $\pm 1$ mm. Furthermore, visual evidence proves that the network uses consistent regions for predicting AL. The visual results of this study also point to a link between AL and biological structure of eyes, which paves the way for future research.

Original language English 9264730 IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 27 4 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTQE.2020.3038845 Accepted/In press - 2020

## Keywords

• Artificial neural networks
• biomedical imaging
• machine learning
• medical diagnosis
• regression analysis

## ASJC Scopus subject areas

• Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
• Electrical and Electronic Engineering