AUTOMATIC DETECTION OF OPTIC DISC AND BLOOD VESSELS FROM RETINAL IMAGES USING IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES

Oakar Phyo, AungSoe Khaing

Abstract: Diabetic retinopathy is the common cause of blindness. This paper presents the mathematical morphology method to detect and eliminate the optic disc (OD) and the blood vessels. Detection of optic disc and the blood vessels are the necessary steps in the detection of diabetic retinopathy because the blood vessels and the optic disc are the normal features of the retinal image. And also, the optic disc and the exudates are the brightest portion of the image. Detection of optic disc and the blood vessels can help the ophthalmologists to detect the diseases earlier and faster. Optic disc and the blood vessels are detected and eliminated by using mathematical morphology methods such as closing, filling, morphological reconstruction and Otsu algorithm. The objective of this paper is to detect the normal features of the image. By using the result, the ophthalmologists can detect the diseases easily.

Keywords: Blood vessels, Diabetic retinopathy, mathematical morphology, Otsu algorithm, optic disc (OD)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2014.0303056