title: Optimisation of an automated drusen-quantifying software for the analysis of drusen distribution in patients with age-related macular degeneration.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study is to optimise the settings of the Retinal Image Analysis Laboratory (RIALAB), a semi-automatic drusen quantification software, in planning for high-throughput quantification of drusen in clinical studies of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
  
  
  METHODS
  A comparison of five different settings in RIALAB was made on 67 images from the Rotterdam eye study (population-based study) and 56 images from the fellow eye of patients with active neovascular AMD in King's College Hospital, London (hospital-based study).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 'Few Outer' setting was the best setting, with it being most appropriate for 52 (77.6%) of the Rotterdam cohort and 47 (83.9%) for the London cohort. Pearson's χ(2)-test revealed both results to be statistically significant (P<0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RIALAB is a viable algorithm and software package that can detect, quantify, and analyse drusen efficiently in both population-based and hospital-based studies. We have shown that the 'Few Outer' drusen setting can be employed as the default setting, with fine-tuning only needed in a minority of cases, thus helping to speed up workflow.
authors.affiliation: Oxford Eye Hospital and the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. ongbeng2@doctors.org.uk
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Ong
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pearce
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sivaprasad
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Klaver
authors.forename: R T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: N V
authors.initials: NV
authors.lastname: Chong
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015593:Retinal Drusen / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012984:Software