Early detection of dementia through retinal imaging and trustworthy AI
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a global healthcare challenge lacking a simple and affordable detection method. We propose a novel deep learning framework, Eye-AD, to detect Early-onset Alzheimer's Disease (EOAD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) using OCTA images of retinal microvasculature and choriocapillaris. Eye-AD employs a multilevel graph representation to analyze intra- and inter-instance relationships in retinal layers. Using 5751 OCTA images from 1671 participants in a multi-center study, our model demonstrated superior performance in EOAD (internal data: AUC = 0.9355, external data: AUC = 0.9007) and MCI detection (internal data: AUC = 0.8630, external data: AUC = 0.8037). Furthermore, we explored the associations between retinal structural biomarkers in OCTA images and EOAD/MCI, and the results align well with the conclusions drawn from our deep learning interpretability analysis. Our findings provide further evidence that retinal OCTA imaging, coupled with artificial intelligence, will serve as a rapid, noninvasive, and affordable dementia detection.
Authors
- Hong Qi
- Jinkui Hao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7101-961X)
- Shouyue Liu
- Yanwu Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1779-931X)
- Huazhu Fu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9702-5524)
- William Robert Kwapong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9633-4694)
- Alejandro Federico Frangi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2675-528X)
- Yitian Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4357-4592)
- Yifan Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5691-013X)
- Yalin Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7873-0922)
- Jiong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1922-9118)
- Honghai Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2880-4698)
- Ting Shen
- Shuting Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6932-0131)
- Qinkang Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0648-2499)
Institutions
- Ningbo University (CN)
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research (SG)
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Edge Hill University (GB)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Sichuan University (CN)
- Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (GB)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Institute of High Performance Computing (SG)
- West China Hospital of Sichuan University (CN)
- Peking University Third Hospital (CN)
- Ningbo University Affiliated Hospital (CN)
- Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University (CN)
- Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology (CN)
- Cranfield University (GB)
- South China University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Digital Medicine
- Published
- 2024-10-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-024-01292-5
- Citations
- 34
- Primary Topic
- Retinal Imaging and Analysis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 13.75
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- UK Research and Innovation
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Royal Academy of Engineering
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Manchester Biomedical Research Centre
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association
- Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province