A novel approach for detection of diabetic macular edema

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is an eye disease that belongs to diabetic retinopathy which directs to vision loss. DME, which is a contusion in the macular region of eye is a common vision problem seen in diabetic patients. Hard exudates (bright lesions)in the fundus image indicates the presence of DME. Early detection of Macular Edema in diabetic patients prevents blindness. DME occurs when fluid and protein deposits collect on or under the macula of the eye. These leakages cause the macula to thicken and swell, progressively distorts a persons vision. So in this article detection of exudates and its proximity towards macula determines and thereby its severity level. This article presents the computer based approach for the disease detection, which includes the steps image preprocessing, localization and masking of the optic disc, detection of fovea, ROI extraction, motion pattern generation, determination of disease severity level. First stage, detecting of DME and the next stage is assessing the severity of DME. An easier method for DME detection is also done.