QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE OPACIFICATION LEVEL IN EYE LENSES

Abstract

Opacification is the process that diminishes the ability to see as the lens becomes opaque after some time following a cataract surgery. Ability to determine quantitatively the level of opacification is essential as it helps predict the lifetime of the lens. Here we present some image processing techniques that can be used to quantitatively determine the opacification level. Texture and histogram analysis, and noise processing techniques together with their limitations are presented. Regions of interest on both clean and contaminated lenses are analyzed based on the intensity of the image, the width of the histograms and the histogram distance. It is observed that as the contamination level increases, the histograms widen and shift toward higher intensity values. The image analysis based on the noise processing technique is performed since the opacification is a process that develops randomly and in unexpected stripes or shapes. Limitations of the techniques are also presented.