An Annotated Corneal Confocal Microscopy Dataset for Nerve Segmentation and Clinical Characterization

Corneal confocal microscopy enables in vivo visualization of the subbasal nerve plexus, yet most available datasets provide only centerline annotations or are restricted in accessibility, limiting pixel level segmentation research. Existing resources vary in quality, annotation strategy and clinical coverage, which complicates objective algorithm comparison and reduces their utility for developing robust models. To address these gaps, we introduce a new dataset of 410 high quality images from 88 participants, each paired with an expert reviewed pixel level nerve mask. The images span two independently collected subsets with distinct acquisition conditions and participant groups, and each subject is accompanied by demographic and clinical information. The dataset offers detailed, manually curated delineations of nerve fibers, consistent formatting and clear provenance. It is intended to support training and validation of segmentation models, assessment of generalizability across imaging conditions and exploration of associations between image derived metrics and clinical characteristics. The uncompressed dataset consists of two folders and a Microsoft Excel file, named “images,” “annotations,” and “data.xlsx,” respectively. The first two folders contain the original CCM images and their corresponding segmentation masks, each comprising 410 PNG images. Each original image has a corresponding mask with an identical filename. The filenames are prefixed with a five-digit code: the first digit indicates the Set number (1 or 2); the second and third digits represent the subject number within the Set, padded with a leading zero if necessary; and the fourth and fifth digits denote the image number for that subject, also zero-padded when needed. For example, “25104.png” refers to the fourth image of subject 51 in Set 2. The Excel file, “data.xlsx,” provides clinical and demographic information for each subject, which is described in detail in Table. Table. Clinical and demographic data associated with the cohort of examined subjects. Parameter Explanation ID Global identifier Set ID Set identifier Subject ID Subject identifier within the Set Gender Sex (1 = male, 2 = female) Age Age at examination (years) Course Duration of diabetes from first diagnosis to examination (years) Height Height (cm) Weight Weight (kg) SBP Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) DBP Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) FBG Fasting blood glucose (mmol/L) PBG 2 hour postprandial blood glucose (mmol/L) HBA1C Glycated hemoglobin (%) C-Peptide Fasting C-peptide (ng/mL) RBC Red blood cell count (10^12/L) Hb Hemoglobin concentration (g/L) AST Aspartate aminotransferase (U/L) ALT Alanine aminotransferase (U/L) CRE Creatinine (µmol/L) TC Total cholesterol (mmol/L) TG Triglycerides (mmol/L) HDL High density lipoprotein (mmol/L) LDL Low density lipoprotein (mmol/L) UACR Urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (mg/g) Folic Acid Folic acid (ng/mL) VB12 Vitamin B12 (ng/mL)