Application of Artificial Intelligence in the Diagnosis, Follow-Up and Prediction of Treatment of Ophthalmic Diseases.

PURPOSE: To describe the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in ophthalmic diseases and its possible future directions.

METHODS

A retrospective review of the literature from PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases (2019-2024).

RESULTS

AI assists in cataract diagnosis, classification, preoperative lens calculation, surgical risk, postoperative vision prediction, and follow-up. For glaucoma, AI enhances early diagnosis, progression prediction, and surgical risk assessment. It detects diabetic retinopathy early and predicts treatment effects for diabetic macular edema. AI analyzes fundus images for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) diagnosis and risk prediction. Additionally, AI quantifies and grades vitreous opacities in uveitis. For retinopathy of prematurity, AI facilitates disease classification, predicting disease occurrence and severity. Recently, AI also predicts systemic diseases by analyzing fundus vascular changes.

CONCLUSIONS

AI has been extensively used in diagnosing, following up, and predicting treatment outcomes for common blinding eye diseases. In addition, it also has a unique role in the prediction of systemic diseases.