Severity Level Detection in Retinal Fundus Images for Diabetic Retinopathy

Abstract

Diabetic Retinopathy is the disease caused for diabetic people which doesn’t have symptoms in the first phase. As it progresses, it becomes symptomatic. This disease, sometimes, might lead to complete blindness. Red lesions contain microaneurysms, haemorrhages and exudates. This work focuses on detection of red lesions in fundus image. Ophthalmologists use pupil dilation of chemical solutions in order to detect the abnormality which takes time and also causes irritation to patients. Image processing techniques are used to avoid these limitations. Morphological operations are used to identify the pixels belonging to the red lesions. Gabor filter is used for separating the blood vessels. Some spots are formed near macular region because blood vessels become leaky which leads to exudates. The severity level of the disease is determined by finding the distance between lesions and macular region. The disease is considered as severe if the distance between them is closer and confirms as less if the distance is far.