Artificial intelligence and glaucoma: a lucid and comprehensive review

Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 Dec 16:11:1423813. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1423813. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Glaucoma is a pathologically irreversible eye illness in the realm of ophthalmic diseases. Because it is difficult to detect concealed and non-obvious progressive changes, clinical diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma is extremely challenging. At the same time, screening and monitoring for glaucoma disease progression are crucial. Artificial intelligence technology has advanced rapidly in all fields, particularly medicine, thanks to ongoing in-depth study and algorithm extension. Simultaneously, research and applications of machine learning and deep learning in the field of glaucoma are fast evolving. Artificial intelligence, with its numerous advantages, will raise the accuracy and efficiency of glaucoma screening and diagnosis to new heights, as well as significantly cut the cost of diagnosis and treatment for the majority of patients. This review summarizes the relevant applications of artificial intelligence in the screening and diagnosis of glaucoma, as well as reflects deeply on the limitations and difficulties of the current application of artificial intelligence in the field of glaucoma, and presents promising prospects and expectations for the application of artificial intelligence in other eye diseases such as glaucoma.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; diagnosis; glaucoma; optical coherence tomography; screening.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 82274589, 81973912, China); Beijing Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Major Difficult Diseases Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Collaborative Research Project (No. 2023BJSAYNJBXTGG-010, China); the Science and Technology Innovation Project of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (No. CI2021A02602, China); China Center for Evidence-based Medicine of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. 2020YJSZX-2, China); and the High level Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital Project of Eye hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (Nos GSP5-82, GSP4-02-5).