Abstract
IntroductionPseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX) is a systemic disease involving the accumulation of pathological material deposits in the tissues of the anterior segment of the eye. The problem of modern ophthalmology is a quantitative assessment of the severity of PEX in the diagnosis and evaluation of the treatment progress in patients.Material and methodFor the purposes of this study, 52 images of the anterior segment of the eye with the resolution of M × N = 1280 × 960 pixels were obtained in jpg format using the slit lamp CSO 450-SL. The patients were aged 50–80 and were recruited from Poland. All patients who participated in the study provided written informed consent after explanation of the nature and possible consequences of the study. The image analysis method proposed by the authors contains the calculation of the direction field, setting a straight perpendicular line passing through each pixel of the edge of the pupil, the calculation of the intersection of straight lines in order to determine the central point of the pupil position, the detection of the contour of PEX and the outer border of the iris with the use of the polar coordinate system. All analyzed parameters were set automatically with one exception parameter chosen manually depending on the slit lamp type.ResultsA fully automatic measurement of PEX was carried out with the proposed method. Quantitative results enable to perform reproducible tests independently of the research centre. Owing to the image analysis method proposed by the authors, it is possible to obtain results in no more than 1 second on the Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2.50 GHz with a measurement error below 3%. Other known methods of image analysis and processing that are compared in this paper give results with a greater error (4-35%) which depends on the degree of magnification (×6, ×16, ×20) and are not fully automatic.ConclusionsThe methods of image analysis and processing enable a quantitative, repeatable and automatic measurement of the severity and progress of PEX syndrome. They support medical diagnosis and automatic archiving of results.
Highlights
Pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX) is a systemic disease involving the accumulation of pathological material deposits in the tissues of the anterior segment of the eye
Owing to the image analysis method proposed by the authors, it is possible to obtain results in no more than 1 second on the Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2.50 GHz with a measurement error below 3%
Other known methods of image analysis and processing that are compared in this paper give results with a greater error (4-35%) which depends on the degree of magnification (×6, ×16, ×20) and are not fully automatic
Summary
Pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX) is a systemic disease involving the accumulation of pathological material deposits in the tissues of the anterior segment of the eye. Pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX) is related to aging of the body. It is more common in people over 50 years of age, and in about 20% of the population above 60 years of age in the countries of northern Europe. Mydriasis and image analysis with a slit lamp enable to detect the nature and severity of PEX. This disease involves dysregulation of elastin synthesis and the formation of irregular elastic fibre aggregates, with a concomitant significant reduction of collagen fibres.
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