Deep learning-based M-mode OCT system and B-mode OCT system diagnosis accuracy comparison

M-mode Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) imaging is a cost-effective alternative to the widely used B-mode OCT in medical imaging. However, as an emerging imaging modality, M-mode OCT has not been extensively studied for its diagnostic capabilities. In this paper, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based framework to evaluate the diagnostic performance of M-mode and B-mode OCT images. Our results demonstrate that M-mode OCT can achieve comparable diagnostic accuracy to B-mode OCT. To investigate the reason behind this comparable performance, we conduct further analysis in two parts. First, using transfer learning, we show that deep learning models extract highly similar features from both M-mode and B-mode OCT images. Second, we analyze the feature distributions and observe that both modalities yield distinguishable differences between normal and abnormal cases. These findings suggest that the critical diagnostic information in OCT images is primarily encoded in the depth profiles of individual A-scans. Motivated by this insight, we propose a weakly supervised algorithm based on Multi-Instance Learning (MIL), which extracts features from individual A-scans and integrates them to generate final diagnostic predictions. Notably, this method does not require per A-scan labels during training, yet it is capable of producing per A-scan predictions. The proposed approach achieves diagnostic performance comparable to models that utilize entire M-mode or B-mode OCT images, while offering enhanced interpretability through localized, per A-scan outputs.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Tong, Linjie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Do, Minh

• Medical Image Analysis
• Deep Learning

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Linjie Tong

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129191

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129191