Assessment of Disc Damage Likelihood Scale (DDLS) for Automated Glaucoma Diagnosis

Abstract

Glaucoma is the second leading ocular disease of irreversible blindness. Structural damages in optic disc such as deforming of neuroretinal rim, optic cup precedes the functional damages so their early assessment is crucial. Functional damages involve visual field impairment & blindness. Tonometery and visual field assessment are the manual method of assessing glaucoma and require clinical setup and expert advice. Manual methods are not sufficient to assess glaucoma in its early stages. Structural assessment can detect Glaucoma in early stage and diminishes the risk of irreversible visual impairment. Optic disc photography is a Qualitative and less expensive method. Cup to Disc Ratio(CDR), Inferior Superior Nasal Temporal(ISNT) rule and Peripapillary Atrophy (PPA) are assessed for determining Glaucoma Stage. But these features are prone to errors as disc size is not considered in Cup to disc ratio. Disc Damage Likelihood Scale (DDLS) presents a novel approach for rim width assessment, which can increase the reliability of automated glaucoma diagnosis in conjunction with other features. Incorporation of Disc Damage likelihood Scale (DDLS) & features like blood pressure, age, ethnicity in automated assessment techniques can increase the reliability of automated glaucoma diagnosis.