Blood vessels segmentation in the retina: preliminary assessment of the mathematical morphology and of the wavelet transform techniques

Jorge Leandro, Roberto Cesar, Herbert Jelinek

Research output: Book chapter/Published conference paperConference paperpeer-review

55 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The article reports on the development of a system for automatic analysis of retinal angiographic images. Particularly, we focus on the segmentation of the blood vessels in these images. We started by implementing a previously known technique based on mathematical morphology. Due to some shortcomings of this method for our data, we have developed a new approach based on the continuous wavelet transform using the Morlet wavelet. The main advantage of the latter with respect to our images lies in its capabilities in tuning to specific frequencies, thus allowing noise filtering and blood vessel enhancement in a single step. Furthermore, as we intend to use shape analysis techniques for the detection and quantitative characterisation of the vascular branching pattern in the retina, the wavelets will also be important with respect to performing fractal and multifractal image analysis. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the mathematical morphology method was able to detect finer detail more precisely. Our present results suggest that an interesting direction to be investigated is how to use both approaches together in order to obtain better results and apply this as a diagnostic tool.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationXIV Brazilian Symposium on Computer Graphics and Image Processing-Sibgraphi01
Place of PublicationSao Paulo, Brazil
PublisherIEEE Press
Pages84-90
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)0769513301
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2001
EventBrazilian Symposium on Computer Graphics and Image Processing - Florianópolis, Brazil, Brazil
Duration: 15 Oct 200118 Oct 2001

Conference

ConferenceBrazilian Symposium on Computer Graphics and Image Processing
Country/TerritoryBrazil
Period15/10/0118/10/01

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Blood vessels segmentation in the retina: preliminary assessment of the mathematical morphology and of the wavelet transform techniques'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this