AUTOMATIC DETECTION AND PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS OF GLAUCOMA

MOTIVATION:

Glaucoma is a disease that damages the eyes optic nerve. It usually happens when fluid builds
up in the front part of your eye. That extra fluid increases the pressure in your eye, damaging the
optic nerve. Glaucoma can also lead to blindness, and if blindness occurs from glaucoma, it is
irreversible. It can affect any age group, including newborns, infants, children and elderly.
Glaucoma is the third leading cause of blindness in India. 12 million people are affected
accounting for 12.8% of the countries blindness. Early detection of glaucoma is important to cure
it.

INTRODUCTION:

An effective way of detecting the progression of glaucoma is by measuring the Cup-to-Disc

Ratio (CDR). The optic disc is the anatomical location of the eye's "blind spot", the area where
the optic nerve and blood vessels enter the retina. The optic disc can be flat or it can have a
certain amount of normal cupping. But glaucoma, which is in most cases associated with an
increase in intraocular pressure, often produces additional pathological cupping of the optic disc.
As glaucoma advances, the cup enlarges until it occupies most of the disc area. The Cup-to-Disc
Ratio (CDR) compares the diameter of the "cup" portion of the optic disc with the total diameter
of the optic disc. The normal cup-to-disc ratio is around 0.3. A large cup-to-disc ratio may imply
glaucoma or other pathology.

Alongwith this, we are considering the irregularities in the optic nerve placements on the disc as
a measure of deformation of the cup. The increased eye-pressure squeezes the cup to go deeper
and so the optic nerves forms a bayonet on the cup wall before falling into the cup. Also the cup
forms a notch, thereby leading to glaucoma