Computer-Aided Diagnosis System for Retinal Diseases in Medical Imaging

Abstract — Bordering on important domains – engineering, medicine and informatics, involving not only knowledge regarding the biosystems structure and functionality, but also knowledge and skills from technical and IT systems, the paper presents the results of some researches on biological human visual structures concerning the diagnosis of visual diseases, namely the macular ones. This highly important transdisciplinary topic combines aspects from biosystems (human visual system), image acquisition and processing (medical imaging), artificial intelligence techniques (neural networks) and information management (databases). Starting from classical or digital retina images, using neural networks image recognition algorithms, the Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CADx) system identifies macular diseases with high precision. Images are stored in databases together with patient personal details and treatments and diagnosis information. The software includes image processing modules, databases and artificial neural networks that can be trained for recognizing images of new diseases or for improving sensitivity and specificity of the system. The Computer-Aided Diagnosis reduces the doctor’s level of incertitude regarding some diseases, improves the initial and evolutional identification precision of disease, allows monitoring the health status of the patient during new treatment methods, stores images in digital format and generates diagnoses databases that can be explored in research, medical practice and specialized teaching. Using such a system increases the quality and accessibility of medical services. Key-Words: — computer-aided diagnosis, neural networks, image processing, ophthalmology, macula, retin