GIMP and Wavelets for Medical Image Processing: Enhancing Images of the Fundus of the Eye

Author(s): Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

The visual analysis of retina and of its vascular characteristics is important in the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases of visual perception. In the related medical diagnoses, the digital processing of the fundus images is used to obtain the segmentation of retinal vessels. However, an image segmentation is often requiring methods based on peculiar or complex algorithms: in this paper we will show some alternative approaches obtained by applying freely available tools to enhance, without a specific segmentation, the images of the fundus of the eye. We will see in particular, that combining the use of GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, with the wavelet filter of Iris, a program well-known for processing astronomical images, the result is giving images which can be alternative of those obtained from segmentation.

Image processing, Retina, Retina Vessels, GIMP, AstroFracTool, Iris, Wavelets

1. Kean Theng Oh and Nader Moinfar, Ophthalmologic Manifestations of Hypertension, Medscape, 21 March 2014, at emedicine.medscape.com/ article/1201779-overview
2. Eye Complications, American Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/ complications/ eye-complications/
3. Xiaoxia Yin, Brian W-H Ng, Jing He, Yanchun Zhang and Derek Abbott, Accurate Image Analysis of the Retina Using Hessian Matrix and Binarisation of Thresholded Entropy with Application of Texture Mapping, PLOS ONE, April 29, 2014.
4. A.M. Mendonça and A. Campilho, Segmentation of Retinal Blood Vessels by Combining the Detection of Centerlines and Morphological Reconstruction, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2016, Volume 25, Pages 1200–1213.
5. J. Staal, M. Abramoff, M. Niemeijer, M. Viergever and B. van Ginneken, Ridge-Based Vessel Segmentation in Color Images of the Retina, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2004, Volume 23, Pages 501–509.
6. Vv. Aa., Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Image_segmentation
7. M. Abramoff, M. Garvin and M. Sonka, Retinal Imaging and Image Analysis, IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering, 2010, Volume 3, Pages 169–208.
8. Vv. Aa., Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Fundus_photography
9. DRIVE Database, www.isi.uu.nl/Research/ Databases/DRIVE/
10. J.J. Staal, M.D. Abramoff, M. Niemeijer, M.A. Viergever and B. van Ginneken, Ridge Based Vessel Segmentation in Color Images of the Retina, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2004, Volume 23, Pages 501-509.
11. STructured Analysis of the Retina, www.ces.clemson.edu/ ~ahoover/stare/
12. A.C. Sparavigna, The GNU Image Manipulation Program Applied to Study the Sand Dunes, The International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 9, Pages 1-8.
13. A.C. Sparavigna, Edge-Detection Applied to Moving Sand Dunes on Mars, The International Journal of Sciences, 2013, Volume 2, Issue 8, Pages 102-104.
14. Iris, 1999-2010, Christian Buil, www.astrosurf.com/buil/ us/iris/iris.htm
15. R. Marazzato and A.C. Sparavigna, Astronomical Image Processing Based on Fractional Calculus: the AstroFracTool, arXiv preprint, arXiv:0910.4637, 2009.
16. Vv. Aa., Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Edge_detection
17. M. Häggström, Medical Gallery of Mikael Häggström, Wikiversity Journal of Medicine, 2014, Volume 1, Issue 2. DOI: 10.15347/wjm/2014.008.
18. Iris Tutorial, www.astrosurf.com/buil/ iris/tutorial11/doc28_us.htm