Determining levels of hypertension from retinal vasculature images

An apparatus for determining a level of hypertension of a person, said apparatus comprising:

• an acquiring module configured to acquire image data defining a retinal image of a retina of the person that has been captured by a retinal imaging system;
• a processing module configured to process the image data based on a classification algorithm, which has been trained on image data defining retinal images of a plurality of subjects, to identify a plurality of vessel segments present in the retinal image, by:
• demarcating a region of interest, which is confined to a portion of the retinal image showing a near periphery of the retina that comprises an annular segment subtending 180 degrees nasal to the optic disc, from a remainder of the retinal image;
• and
• processing the image data to identify the plurality of vessel segments in the region of interest of the retinal image;
• a determining module configured to determine respective widths of vessel segments of at least a subset of the plurality of vessel segments present in the region of interest of the retinal image;
• and
• a calculating module configured to calculate, as at least one value of a vascular summary metric, at least one of an average value of and a median value of the determined widths of the vessel segments present in the region of interest of the retinal image, and to use the at least one value of the vascular summary metric and a relationship between the vascular summary metric and a level of hypertension to determine a level of hypertension by which the person has been affected.

A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium storing computer program instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to execute a method for determining a level of hypertension of a person, said method comprising:

• acquiring image data defining a retinal image of a retina of the person that has been captured by a retinal imaging system;
• processing the image data based on a classification algorithm, which has been trained on image data defining retinal images of a plurality of subjects, to identify a plurality of vessel segments present in the retinal image, wherein the processing comprises:
• demarcating a region of interest, which is confined to a portion of the retinal image showing a near periphery of the retina that comprises a half-concentric region nasal to the optic disc, from a remainder of the retinal image;
• and
• processing the image data to identify the plurality of vessel segments in the region of interest of the retinal image;
• determining respective widths of vessel segments of at least a subset of the plurality of vessel segments present in the region of interest of the retinal image;
• calculating, as at least one value of a vascular summary metric, at least one of an average value of and a median value of the determined widths of the vessel segments present in the region of interest of the retinal image;
• and
• using the at least one value of the vascular summary metric and a relationship between the vascular summary metric and a level of hypertension to determine a level of hypertension by which the person has been affected.

An apparatus for determining a level of hypertension of a person, said apparatus comprising:

• an acquiring module configured to acquire image data defining a retinal image of a retina of the person that has been captured by a retinal imaging system;
• a processing module configured to process the image data based on a classification algorithm, which has been trained on image data defining retinal images of a plurality of subjects, to identify a plurality of vessel segments present in the retinal image, by:
• demarcating a region of interest, which is confined to a portion of the retinal image showing a near periphery of the retina that comprises a half-concentric region nasal to the optic disc, from a remainder of the retinal image;
• and
• processing the image data to identify the plurality of vessel segments in the region of interest of the retinal image;
• a determining module configured to determine respective widths of vessel segments of at least a subset of the plurality of vessel segments present in the region of interest of the retinal image;
• and
• a calculating module configured to calculate, as at least one value of a vascular summary metric, at least one of an average value of and a median value of the determined widths of the vessel segments present in the region of interest of the retinal image, and to use the at least one value of the vascular summary metric and a relationship between the vascular summary metric and a level of hypertension to determine a level of hypertension by which the person has been affected.