Digital Image Processing for Ophthalmology: Detection and Modeling of Retinal Vascular Architecture (Synthesis Lectures on Biomedical Engineering)

The monitoring of the effects of retinopathy on the visual system can be assisted by analyzing the vascular architecture of the retina. This book presents methods based on Gabor filters to detect blood vessels in fundus images of the retina. Forty images of the retina from the Digital Retinal Images for Vessel Extraction (DRIVE) database were used to evaluate the performance of the methods. The results demonstrate high efficiency in the detection of blood vessels with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.96. Monitoring the openness of the major temporal arcade (MTA) could facilitate improved diagnosis and optimized treatment of retinopathy. This book presents methods for the detection and modeling of the MTA, including the generalized Hough transform to detect parabolic forms. Results obtained with 40 images of the DRIVE database, compared with hand-drawn traces of the MTA, indicate a mean distance to the closest point of about 0.24mm. This book illustrates applications of the methods mentioned above for the analysis of the effects of proliferative diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity on retinal vascular architecture.

Faraz Oloumi received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2009 and 2011, respectively, from the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Calgary, conducting his research on image processing tech niques to extract diagnostic information in fundus images of the retina. His current interests are biomedical image processing, computer-aided diagnosis, artificial intelligence, pattern analysis, and graphical user-interface design Rangaraj M. Rangayyan is a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer En gineering, and an Adjunct Professor of Surgery and Radiology, at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communication in 1976 from the University of Mysore at the People’s Education Society Col lege of Engineering, Mandya, Karnataka, India, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute ofScience, Bangalore, Karnataka, India, in 1980. His research interests are in the areas of digital signal and image processing, biomedical signal analysis, biomedical im age analysis, and computer-aided diagnosis. He has published more than 150 papers in journals and 250 papers in proceedings of conferences. His research productivity was recognized with the 1997 and 2001 Research Excellence Awards of the Department of Electrical and Computer En gineering, the 1997 Research Award of the Faculty of Engineering, and by appointment as “Uni versity Professor” (2003–2013), at the University of Calgary. He is the author of two textbooks: Biomedical Signal Analysis (IEEE/Wiley, 2002) and Biomedical Image Analysis (CRC, 2005). He has coauthored and coedited several other books, including Color Image Processing with Biomedical Applications (SPIE, 2011). He was recognized by IEEE Canada with the award of the Outstand ing Engineer medal in 2013 and the IEEE with the award of the ird Millennium Medal in 2000, and was elected as a Fellow of the IEEE in 2001, Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada in 2002, Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2003, Fellow of SPIE: the International Society for Optical Engineering in 2003, Fellow of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine in 2007, Fellow of the Canadian Medical and Bi ological Engineering Society in 2007, and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2009. He has been awarded the Killam Resident Fellowship thrice (1998, 2002, and 2007) in support of his book-writing projects Anna L. Ells is an ophthalmologist, with dual fellowships in Pediatric Ophthalmology and Me dical Retina. She has a combined academic hospital-based practice and private practice. Dr. Ells’ research focuses on retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), global prevention of blindness in children, and telemedicine approaches to ROP. Dr. Ells has international expertise and has published ex tensively in peer-reviewed journals