Fractal dimensions of retinal vascular patterns seen on intravenous fluorescein angiogram photographs of normal eyes and eyes with background diabetic retinopathy.

Abstract

Abstract: : Objective: To compare fractal dimension of retinal vasculature in normal eyes and in eyes with background diabetic retinopathy (BDR) as seen on intravenous fluorescein angiography (IVFA) photographs. Methods: IVFA images were digitized using a professional high–resolution transparency scanner and analyzed using commercial fractal analysis software. Eyes with history of laser treatment or unrelated pathology were excluded from the analyses. Results:21 eyes of 13 patients with BDR and 5 eyes of 5 patients with no retinal pathology were enrolled. There was a significant difference in mean fractal dimension between the two groups: eyes with BDR FD = 1.695 ± 0.059, normal eyes FD = 1.520 ± 0.053 (p = 0.00000341). Conclusion:Fractal analyses of digitized IVFA photographs revealed significant difference between normal eyes and eyes with background diabetic retinopathy. Therefore, determination of fractal dimension appears to be a promising tool for automated IVFA processing. Further research in image standardization is needed to allow wider use of this methodology.

Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • image processing • imaging/image analysis: clinical