Measurement of Vessel Width in Retinal Fundus Images of Preterm Infants with Plus Disease

Changes in retinal vessel width can be indicative of the presence of several diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), and hypertension. Accurate detection and measurement of such changes could help in computer-aided diagnosis. An increase in venular thickness is a sign of plus disease, which warrants treatment of ROP. We present image processing methods for detection, tracking, and measurement of the width of the major temporal arcade (MTA), which is the thickest branch of the venular vessels, in retinal fundus images of preterm infants. The methods include the use of Gabor filters for the detection of the blood vessels, as well as morphological image processing for tracking and measurement of the width of the MTA. The results indicate a statistically significant difference in vessel width of normal cases as compared to cases diagnosed with plus disease (p = 0.015).