title: Automated detection of exudates and macula for grading of diabetic macular edema.
abstract: Medical systems based on state of the art image processing and pattern recognition techniques are very common now a day. These systems are of prime interest to provide basic health care facilities to patients and support to doctors. Diabetic macular edema is one of the retinal abnormalities in which diabetic patient suffers from severe vision loss due to affected macula. It affects the central vision of the person and causes total blindness in severe cases. In this article, we propose an intelligent system for detection and grading of macular edema to assist the ophthalmologists in early and automated detection of the disease. The proposed system consists of a novel method for accurate detection of macula using a detailed feature set and Gaussian mixtures model based classifier. We also present a new hybrid classifier as an ensemble of Gaussian mixture model and support vector machine for improved exudate detection even in the presence of other bright lesions which eventually leads to reliable classification of input retinal image in different stages of macular edema. The statistical analysis and comparative evaluation of proposed system with existing methods are performed on publicly available standard retinal image databases. The proposed system has achieved average value of 97.3%, 95.9% and 96.8% for sensitivity, specificity and accuracy respectively on both databases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering College of E&ME, National University of Sciences and Technology, Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Electronic address: usmakram@gmail.com.
authors.forename: M Usman
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Akram
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering College of E&ME, National University of Sciences and Technology, Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Electronic address: anam.tariq86@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Anam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tariq
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering College of E&ME, National University of Sciences and Technology, Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Electronic address: shoab@carepvtltd.com.
authors.forename: Shoab A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering College of E&ME, National University of Sciences and Technology, Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Electronic address: myjaved@ceme.nust.edu.pk.
authors.forename: M Younus
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Javed
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003930:Diabetic Retinopathy / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D003941:Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological; D005122:Exudates and Transudates / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008266:Macula Lutea / Q000473:pathology; D008269:Macular Edema / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016011:Normal Distribution; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods; D060388:Support Vector Machine
keywords: Classification; Diabetic macular edema; Exudates; Macula; Retinal image analysis