ABSTRACT
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) has been identified as the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness. Plus disease is clinically defined and diagnosed by visual qualitative comparison of the patient's retina (using a funduscope) in relation to a standard retinal fundus photograph that exhibits abnormal levels of thickness and tortuosity. There is a great need of methods for computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) of plus disease, which can lead to timely diagnosis and effective treatment of ROP. The main aim of the chapter is CAD of plus disease by quantitative feature extraction related to changes in the thickness of the major temporal arcade (MTA), tortuosity of vessels, and the openness of the MTA, in retinal fundus images of preterm infants via digital image processing techniques. The chapter provides an overall view of several methods developed for quantification of the thickness and openness of the MTA, as well as vascular tortuosity.
