Retinal vessel extraction by means of motion contrast, matched filter and combined corner-edge detector

The microvasculature network of retina plays an important role in understanding of the retinal function and diagnosis of many diseases. Although it is possible to noninvasively acquire diffraction-limited resolution retinal images at microscopic cellular level, noises and other structures still make it difficult for diagnosis. In this paper, a new vessel extraction method is introduced. First, we use motion contrast method to trace the motion of the blood components and get the main vessel contour. Second, an improved matched filter method is applied to extract the vessel contour while the single-side edges are eliminated. Then, the combined corner/edge detector is adopted to eliminate the elongated fragments caused by the motion artifacts. Finally, we use mathematical morphology method to dilate the edges of vessels acquired in last step and obtain the exact contour of the vessels. The contrast of the vessels is significantly enhanced and the noises as well as other structures are effectively eliminated.