Automated computer-based enumeration of acellular capillaries for assessment of diabetic retinopathy

Mihran Tuceryan; Anish N. Hemmady; Craig Schebler; Alpha Alex; Ashay D. Bhatwadekar

doi:10.1117/12.2543400

28 February 2020 Automated computer-based enumeration of acellular capillaries for assessment of diabetic retinopathy

Mihran Tuceryan, Anish N. Hemmady, Craig Schebler, Alpha Alex, Ashay D. Bhatwadekar

Proceedings Volume 11317, Medical Imaging 2020: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging; 113170N (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2543400
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2020, Houston, Texas, United States

Abstract

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common complications of diabetes; if untreated the DR can lead to a vision loss. The treatment options for DR are limited and the development of newer therapies are of considerable interest. Drug screening for the retinopathy treatment is undertaken using animal models in which the quantification of acellular capillaries (capillary without any cells) is used as a marker to assess the severity of retinopathy and the treatment response. The traditional approach to quantitate acellular capillaries is through manual counting. The purpose of this investigation was to develop an automated technique for the quantitation of acellular capillaries using computer-based image processing algorithms. We developed a custom procedure using the Python, the medial axis transform (MAT) and the connected component algorithm. The program was tested on the retinas of wild-type and diabetic mice and the results were compared to single blind manual counts by two independent investigators. The program successfully identified and enumerated acellular capillaries. The acellular capillary counts were comparable to the traditional manual counting. In conclusion, we developed an automated computer-based program, which can be effectively used for future pharmacological development of treatments for DR. This algorithm will enhance consistency in retinopathy assessment and reduce the time for analysis, thus, contributing substantially towards the development of future pharmacological agents for the treatment of DR.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Mihran Tuceryan, Anish N. Hemmady, Craig Schebler, Alpha Alex, and Ashay D. Bhatwadekar "Automated computer-based enumeration of acellular capillaries for assessment of diabetic retinopathy", Proc. SPIE 11317, Medical Imaging 2020: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging, 113170N (28 February 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2543400

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