Automated Fovea Detection Based on Unsupervised Retinal Vessel Segmentation Method

The Computer Assisted Diagnosis systems could save workloads and give objective diagnostic to ophthalmologists. At first level of automated screening of systems feature extraction is the fundamental step. One of these retinal features is the fovea. The fovea is a small fossa on the fundus, which is represented by a deep-red or red-brown color in color retinal images. By observing retinal images, it appears that the main vessels diverge from the optic nerve head and follow a specific course that can be geometrically modeled as a parabola, with a common vertex inside the optic nerve head and the fovea located along the apex of this parabola curve. Therefore, based on this assumption, the main retinal blood vessels are segmented and fitted to a parabolic model. With respect to the core vascular structure, we can thus detect fovea in the fundus images. For the vessel segmentation, our algorithm addresses the image locally where homogeneity of features is more likely to occur. The algorithm is composed of 4 steps: multi-overlapping windows, local Radon transform, vessel validation, and parabolic fitting. In order to extract blood vessels, sub-vessels should be extracted in local windows. The high contrast between blood vessels and image background in the images cause the vessels to be associated with peaks in the Radon space. The largest vessels, using a high threshold of the Radon transform, determines the main course or overall configuration of the blood vessels which when fitted to a parabola, leads to the future localization of the fovea. In effect, with an accurate fit, the fovea normally lies along the slope joining the vertex and the focus. The darkest region along this line is the indicative of the fovea. To evaluate our method, we used 220 fundus images from a rural database (MUMS-DB) and one public one (DRIVE). The results show that, among 20 images of the first public database (DRIVE) we detected fovea in 85% of them. Also for the MUMS-DB database among 200 images we detect fovea correctly in 83% on them

A GPU-based Evolution Strategy for Optic Disk Detection in Retinal Images

La ejecución paralela de aplicaciones usando unidades de procesamiento gráfico (gpu) ha ganado gran interés en la comunidad académica en los años recientes. La computación paralela puede ser aplicada a las estrategias evolutivas para procesar individuos dentro de una población, sin embargo, las estrategias evolutivas se caracterizan por un significativo consumo de recursos computacionales al resolver problemas de gran tamaño o aquellos que se modelan mediante funciones de aptitud complejas. Este artículo describe la implementación de una estrategia evolutiva para la detección del disco óptico en imágenes de retina usando Compute Unified Device Architecture (cuda). Los resultados experimentales muestran que el tiempo de ejecución para la detección del disco óptico logra una aceleración de 5 a 7 veces, comparado con la ejecución secuencial en una cpu convencional.Parallel processing using graphic processing units (GPUs) has attracted much research interest in recent years. Parallel computation can be applied to evolution strategy (ES) for processing individuals in a population, but evolutionary strategies are time consuming to solve large computational problems or complex fitness functions. In this paper we describe the implementation of an improved ES for optic disk detection in retinal images using the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) environment. In the experimental results we show that the computational time for optic disk detection task has a speedup factor of 5x and 7x compared to an implementation on a mainstream CPU

Automatic Segmentation of Optic Disc in Eye Fundus Images: A Survey

Optic disc detection and segmentation is one of the key elements for automatic retinal disease screening systems. The aim of this survey paper is to review, categorize and compare the optic disc detection algorithms and methodologies, giving a description of each of them, highlighting their key points and performance measures. Accordingly, this survey firstly overviews the anatomy of the eye fundus showing its main structural components along with their properties and functions. Consequently, the survey reviews the image enhancement techniques and also categorizes the image segmentation methodologies for the optic disc which include property-based methods, methods based on convergence of blood vessels, and model-based methods. The performance of segmentation algorithms is evaluated using a number of publicly available databases of retinal images via evaluation metrics which include accuracy and true positive rate (i.e. sensitivity). The survey, at the end, describes the different abnormalities occurring within the optic disc region

Image Processing and Deep Learning Integration for Enhancing Diabetic Retinopathy Diagnosis through Advanced Telemedicine

Accurate and timely diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy is pivotal for preventing vision loss and enabling effective treatment. This paper presents a pivotal evaluation of an innovative telemedicine system designed for diabetic retinopathy diagnosis. The system combines image processing and deep learning techniques to automate the assessment of retinal fundus images, with a focus on utilizing Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and advanced image processing algorithms. In this study, we rigorously evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of this telemedicine system using a diverse dataset of retinal images. Our findings demonstrate the system's remarkable ability to identify diabetic retinopathy accurately. These results shed light on the potential of this integrated approach for real-world clinical applications. The synergy of image processing and deep learning presents a promising solution for automated and timely diabetic retinopathy diagnosis, ultimately enhancing patient care and improving outcomes

Accurate and reliable segmentation of the optic disc in digital fundus images

We describe a complete pipeline for the detection and accurate automatic segmentation of the optic disc in digital fundus images. This procedure provides separation of vascular information and accurate inpainting of vessel-removed images, symmetry-based optic disc localization, and fitting of incrementally complex contour models at increasing resolutions using information related to inpainted images and vessel masks. Validation experiments, performed on a large dataset of images of healthy and pathological eyes, annotated by experts and partially graded with a quality label, demonstrate the good performances of the proposed approach. The method is able to detect the optic disc and trace its contours better than the other systems presented in the literature and tested on the same data. The average error in the obtained contour masks is reasonably close to the interoperator errors and suitable for practical applications. The optic disc segmentation pipeline is currently integrated in a complete software suite for the semiautomatic quantification of retinal vessel properties from fundus camera images (VAMPIRE)

Automatic extraction of retinal features from colour retinal images for glaucoma diagnosis: a review

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that have common traits such as, high eye pressure, damage to the Optic Nerve Head and gradual vision loss. It affects peripheral vision and eventually leads to blindness if left untreated. The current common methods of pre-diagnosis of Glaucoma include measurement of Intra-Ocular Pressure (IOP) using Tonometer, Pachymetry, Gonioscopy; which are performed manually by the clinicians. These tests are usually followed by Optic Nerve Head (ONH) Appearance examination for the confirmed diagnosis of Glaucoma. The diagnoses require regular monitoring, which is costly and time consuming. The accuracy and reliability of diagnosis is limited by the domain knowledge of different ophthalmologists. Therefore automatic diagnosis of Glaucoma attracts a lot of attention.This paper surveys the state-of-the-art of automatic extraction of anatomical features from retinal images to assist early diagnosis of the Glaucoma. We have conducted critical evaluation of the existing automatic extraction methods based on features including Optic Cup to Disc Ratio (CDR), Retinal Nerve Fibre Layer (RNFL), Peripapillary Atrophy (PPA), Neuroretinal Rim Notching, Vasculature Shift, etc., which adds value on efficient feature extraction related to Glaucoma diagnosis. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Retinal Image Analysis: A Review

Images of the eye ground or retina not only provide an insight to important parts of the visual system but also reflect the general state of health of the entire human body. Automated retina image analysis is becoming an important screening tool for early detection of certain risks and diseases like diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy, age related macular degeneration, glaucoma etc. This can in turn be used to reduce human errors or to provide services to remote areas. In this review paper, we discuss some of the current techniques used to automatically detect the important clinical features of retinal image, such as the blood vessels, optic disc and macula. The quantitative analysis and measurements of these features can be used to better understand the relationship between various diseases and the retinal features

A novel automated approach of multi-modality retinal image registration and fusion

Biomedical image registration and fusion are usually scene dependent, and require intensive computational effort. A novel automated approach of feature-based control point detection and area-based registration and fusion of retinal images has been successfully designed and developed. The new algorithm, which is reliable and time-efficient, has an automatic adaptation from frame to frame with few tunable threshold parameters. The reference and the to-be-registered images are from two different modalities, i.e. angiogram grayscale images and fundus color images. The relative study of retinal images enhances the information on the fundus image by superimposing information contained in the angiogram image. Through the thesis research, two new contributions have been made to the biomedical image registration and fusion area. The first contribution is the automatic control point detection at the global direction change pixels using adaptive exploratory algorithm. Shape similarity criteria are employed to match the control points. The second contribution is the heuristic optimization algorithm that maximizes Mutual-Pixel-Count (MPC) objective function. The initially selected control points are adjusted during the optimization at the sub-pixel level. A global maxima equivalent result is achieved by calculating MPC local maxima with an efficient computation cost. The iteration stops either when MPC reaches the maximum value, or when the maximum allowable loop count is reached. To our knowledge, it is the first time that the MPC concept has been introduced into biomedical image fusion area as the measurement criteria for fusion accuracy. The fusion image is generated based on the current control point coordinates when the iteration stops. The comparative study of the presented automatic registration and fusion scheme against Centerline Control Point Detection Algorithm, Genetic Algorithm, RMSE objective function, and other existing data fusion approaches has shown the advantage of the new approach in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and novelty