Patent attributes
One embodiment of the present invention accounts for individual anatomical variation when evaluating optical nerve fiber measurements. In one aspect, contextual information is used to compensate or correct measurement data. In another aspect, reference coordinates are remapped for improved comparison or visualization. In one embodiment of this latter aspect, the method uses measurements of nerve fiber capacity and maps of nerve fiber retinal service to improve sensitivity and specificity in eye function metrics. In one instance, we use the birefringence of nerve fibers to determine the orientation of the fibers within the RNFL. Orientation of the fibers about the ONH is indicative of the service provided by the fibers and is used to improve the interpretation of thickness measurements of the nerve fiber layer. Normalized nerve fiber measurements about the optic nerve head improve specificity and sensitivity as compared to the standard model. These improvements are a result of partitioning the normative database or modifying the measurement data prior to comparison. Statistics on normalized measurements of nerve fiber bundles also show improvements in specificity and sensitivity.
