Unified methodology for evaluating vessel tree tortuosity metrics in eye fundus images

The tortuosity of a vessel, that is, how and how many times it bends, is a relevant measure to diagnose different pathologies. However, there is an important drawback, as each specialist has its own estimation about what a tortuous vessel is, and the process has to be evaluated manually, implying a large and tedious work. Numerous studies had attempted to define a reliable and deterministic measure for this parameter, but employing different approaches, inputs and validation criteria. In this article, we intended to implement a unified methodology that integrates the different metrics and also to establish a comparison among them, employing the same inputs, validation criteria and procedure for the vascular tree extraction.