Optic disc region of interest localization in fundus image for glaucoma detection in ARGALI

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of permanent blindness worldwide. Glaucoma can be diagnosed through measurement of neuro-retinal optic cup-to-disc ratio (CDR). Correctly determining the optic disc region of interest (ROI) will produce a smaller initial image which takes much lesser time taken to process compared to the entire image. The earlier ROI localization in the ARGALI system used a grid based method. The new algorithm adds a preprocessing step before analyzing the image. This step significantly improves the performance of the ROI detection. A batch of 1564 retinal images from the Singapore Eye Research Centre was used to compare the performance of the two methods. From the results, the earlier and new algorithm detects the ROI correctly for 88% and 96% of the images respectively. The results indicate potential applicability of the method for automated and objective mass screening for early detection of glaucoma.