Automatic segmentation of retinal images for glaucoma screening

Glaucoma is a chronic eye disease in which the optic nerve is progressively damaged. As the disease often progresses silently without symptoms, early detection of glaucoma via screening is important. Cup to disc ratio (CDR) computed from monocular retinal fundus images may provide an option for low cost large-scale glaucoma screening programme. In the chapter, we introduce the Automatic RetinA cup to disc Ratio AssessmenT (ARARAT) system for glaucoma screening. ARARAT uses superpixel classification to segment the optic disc and optic cup from monocular retinal fundus images and computes the CDR values for the screening. The method is validated using two data sets from different races. The areas under curve of the receiver operating characteristic curves are 0.827 and 0.822 from the two data sets. From the discussion with clinicians, the results are promising for large-scale glaucoma screening.