Retinal vascular tree morphology: a semi-automatic quantification

A semi-automatic method to measure and quantify geometrical and topological properties of continuous vascular trees in clinical fundus images is described. Measurements are made from binary images obtained with a previously described segmentation process. The skeletons of the segmented trees are pro...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on biomedical engineering 2002-08, Vol.49 (8), p.912-917
Main Authors: Martinez-Perez, M.E., Highes, A.D., Stanton, A.V., Thorn, S.A., Chapman, N., Bharath, A.A., Parker, K.H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Algorithms
Area measurement
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical imaging
Biomedical measurements
Blood vessels
Diseases
Female
Fluorescein Angiography - methods
Geometry
Humans
Hypertension - diagnosis
Hypertension - physiopathology
Image processing
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Image segmentation
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Models, Cardiovascular
Morphology
Pilot Projects
Retina
Retinal Vessels - anatomy & histology
Retinal Vessels - pathology
Studies
Trees
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A semi-automatic method to measure and quantify geometrical and topological properties of continuous vascular trees in clinical fundus images is described. Measurements are made from binary images obtained with a previously described segmentation process. The skeletons of the segmented trees are produced by thinning, ff branch and crossing points are identified and segments of the trees are labeled and stored as a chain code. The operator selects a tree to be measured and decides if it is an arterial or venous tree. An automatic process then measures the lengths, areas and angles of the individual segments of the tree. Geometrical data and the connectivity information between branches from continuous retinal vessel trees are tabulated. A number of geometrical properties and topological indexes are derived. Vessel diameters and branching angles are validated against manual measurements and several derived geometrical and topological properties are extracted from red-free fundus images of ten normotensive and ten age- and sex-matched hypertensive subjects and compared with previously reported results.
ISSN:0018-9294
1558-2531
DOI:10.1109/TBME.2002.800789