Automated Detection and Quantification of Haemorrhages in Diabetic Retinopathy Images Using Image Arithmetic and Mathematical Morphology Methods

We propose an algorithm for the detection of Haemorrhages from Diabetic Retinopathy images. The algorithm proceeds through three main steps 1. Color image enhancement 2.Image subtraction to extract blood vessels and haemorrhages and 3.Use of set of optimally adjusted morphological operators to suppress blood vessels and to highlight only haemorrhages. These automatically detected haemorrhages are validated by comparing with expert ophthalmologists’ hand-drawn ground-truths. Quantitative performance of our algorithm is evaluated by calculating sensitivity and specificity and predictive value (PV). The overall sensitivity, specificity and PV obtained are 89.49%, 99.89%, and 98.34% respectively.