Document is current

Article History

Received: 1 June 2025

Accepted: 6 April 2026

First Online: 19 April 2026

Declarations

:

: This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, India and Sabitha Eye Care Hospital, Pathanamthitta, Kerala. All procedures performed and data collected were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutions. The research protocol titled "Towards Sustainable Retinal Diagnostics A Deep Learning Alternative to OCT for Macular Thickness Estimation " was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Amrita School of Medicine on November 8, 2024 (Approval No. ECASM-AIMS-2024-506, Reg. No. EC/NEW/INST/2023/KL/0379), in accordance with institutional guidelines and relevant national ethical regulations. The committee found no ethical issues, and clearance was granted. All patient data used in this study were anonymized prior to analysis.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

: This research includes innovative methodologies that have been legally protected through intellectual property rights. The patented work, titled “A sustainable and cost-effective AI- based alternative to OCT: Integrating Fundus Images and Clinical Data for Macular Thickness Estimation in Diabetic Macular Edema.”, has been filed and published under Patent No. 202541054421 by Dr. Manju. B.R, Aparna C A and Dr Gopal S Pillai.