Objective quality assessment of digital retinal images in screening study
https://doi.org/10.21122/2309-4923-2025-3-47-58
Abstract
The paper presents a new method for automated no-reference quantitative assessment of the quality of digital retinal images for diabetic retinopathy screening. The proposed method does not require localization of anatomical structures and is based on the analysis of the central fragment of the image in the green spectral channel using the Weibull distribution scale parameter for integrating local quality estimates. A comparative analysis of 36 no-reference functions was carried out, two evaluation measures that showed the best results were selected. It was experimentally shown that using a central fragment 50–67% of the original image size allows increasing the accuracy of image quality assessment by 40 % compared to full-image analysis. Scaling this fragment to 512×512 pixels reduces the image analysis time by up to 20 times without losing accuracy. The effectiveness of the method was confirmed on three thousand images from various sources: Kaggle and DDR databases, Belarusian clinical data. The developed approach does not require reference data and can be integrated into mass screening systems of fundus images, reducing the workload of specialists and increasing the availability of diagnostics for patients with limited computing resources.
About the Authors
Yu. I. GolubBelarus
Yuliya I. Golub –
PhD, Associate Professor, Leading Researcher.
Minsk
V. Starovoitov
Belarus
Valery Starovoitov –
Doctor of Science, Professor.
Minsk
References
1. Curran K, Piyasena P, Congdon N, Duke L, Malanda B, Peto T. Inclusion of diabetic retinopathy screening strategies in national-level diabetes care planning in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review. Health Research Policy and Systems. 2023;21(2). DOI: 10.1186/s12961-022-00940-0
2. Nørgaard MF, Grauslund J. Automated screening for diabetic retinopathy - A systematic review. Ophthalmic research. 2018;60(1):9–17. DOI: 10.1159/000486284
3. Pavlov VG, Sidamonidze AL, Petrachkov DV. Current trends in the screening for diabetic retinopathy. Russian Annals of Ophthalmology. 2020;136(4):300–309. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.17116/oftalma2020136042300
4. Avidor D. Loewenstein A, Waisbourd M, Nutman A. Cost-effectiveness of diabetic retinopathy screening programs using telemedicine: a systematic review. Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation. 2020;18:1–9. DOI: 10.1186/s12962-020-00211-1
5. Tung T-H, Shih H-C, Chen S-J, Chou P, Liu C-M, Liu J-H. Economic evaluation of screening for diabetic retinopathy among Chinese type 2 diabetics: a community-based study in Kinmen, Taiwan. J Epidemiol. 2008;18(5):225–33. DOI: 10.2188/jea.je2007439
6. Biswas S, Khan MdIA, Hossain MdT, Biswas A, Nakai T, Rohdin J. Which color channel is better for diagnosing retinal diseases automatically in color fundus photographs? Life (Basel). 2022;12(7):973. DOI: 10.3390/life12070973
7. Guo T, Liu K, Zou H, Xu X, Yang J, Yu Q. Refined image quality assessment for color fundus photography based on deep learning. Digital Health. 2024;10:1–13. DOI: 10.1177/20552076231207582
8. 1000 Fundus images with 39 categories. URL: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/linchundan/fundusimage1000/data (date of access: 19.05.2025).
9. Li T, Gao Y, Wang K, Guo S, Liu H, Kang H. Diagnostic assessment of deep learning algorithms for diabetic retinopathy screening. Information Sciences. 2019;501:511–522. DOI: 10.1016/j.ins.2019.06.011
10. Lundström C. Technical report: Measuring digital image quality. 2006. 15 p.
11. Keelan B. Handbook of image quality: characterization and prediction. CRC Press; 2002. 544 p. DOI: 10.1201/9780203910825
12. Golub YI, Starovoitov VV. Image quality assessment. Minsk: OIPI NAN Belarus; 2023. 252 p. (In Russ.).
13. Amin J, Sharif M, Yasmin M. Review on recent developments for detection of diabetic retinopathy. Scientifica (Cairo). 2016;2016:6838976. DOI: 10.1155/2016/6838976
14. Raja D.S.S. Vasuki S, Kumar DR. Performance analysis of retinal image blood vessel segmentation. Advanced Computing: An international journal. 2014;5(2/3):17–23. DOI: 10.5121/acij.2014.5302
15. Long S, Chen J, Hu A, Liu H, Chen Z, Zheng D. Microaneurysms detection in color fundus images using machine learning based on directional local contrast. Biomedical engineering online. 2020;19(21). DOI: 10.1186/s12938-020-00766-3
16. Starovoitov VV, Golub YuI, Lukashevich ММ. Digital fundus image quality assessment. System analysis and applied information science. 2021;4:25–38. (In Russ.).
17. Starovoitov VV, Golub YuI, Lukashevich ММ. A universal retinal image template for automated screening of diabetic retinopathy. Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis. 2022;32:322–331. DOI: 10.1134/S1054661822020195
Review
For citations:
Golub Yu.I., Starovoitov V. Objective quality assessment of digital retinal images in screening study. «System analysis and applied information science». 2025;(3):47-58. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.21122/2309-4923-2025-3-47-58