Neural network approach to classify infective keratitis.

PURPOSE: Infective keratitis is a major sight-threatening condition in developing countries like India. An early diagnosis of infective keratitis is critical to its treatment. Epidemiological trends, morphological features of corneal ulceration and presence of other risk factors often dictate choice of initial treatment. This work assesses the usefulness of classification of infective keratitis by artificial neural network (ANN).

METHODS

Forty input variables from each of the sixty-three known bacterial or fungal ulcers provided the basis for training a three layer feed-forward neural network. The trained neural network classified another set of forty-three corneal ulcers.

RESULTS

Trained artificial neural network could classify correctly all sixty-three cornea ulcers in the training set. In the test set, the artificial neural network correctly classified 39 out of 43 cornea ulcers. Specificity for bacterial and fungal categories was 76.47% and 100% respectively. Accuracy of classification by neural network was 90.7% and compared significantly better than clinicians' prediction of 62.8% (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

ANN has the potential to help clinicians classify corneal ulcers more accurately.