Incorporating spatial information for microaneurysm detection in retinal images

Abstract

The presence of microaneurysms(MAs) in retinal images is a pathognomonic sign of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR). This is one of the leading causes of blindness in the working population worldwide. This paper introduces a novel algorithm that combines information from spatial views of the retina for the purpose of MA detection. Most published research in the literature has addressed the problem of detecting MAs from single retinal images. This work proposes the incorporation of information from two spatial views during the detection process. The algorithm is evaluated using 160 images from 40 patients seen as part of a UK diabetic eye screening programme which contained 207 MAs. An improvement in performance compared to detection from an algorithm that relies on a single image is shown as an increase of 2% ROC score, hence demonstrating the potential of this method.