Automated spectroscopic imaging of oxygen saturation in human retinal vessels

A new automatic visualization procedure for the oxygen saturation imaging from multi-spectral imaging of human retinal vessels has been proposed. Two-wavelength retinal fundus images at 545 and 560 nm, which were oxygen insensitive and oxygen sensitive, respectively, were captured by CCD cameras simultaneously through a beam splitter and interference filters. We applied a morphological processing technique to presume a distribution of incident light including the vessel parts and an optical density (OD) image of each wavelength image. And the OD ratio (OD₅₆₀/OD₅₄₅) image was calculated as a relative indicator of oxygen saturation. Furthermore, processing of line convergence index filter was adopted to identify the retinal vessels. Clear difference between retinal arteries and veins was observed in the automated imaging method. In addition, the decrease of oxygen saturation in the retinal artery without breathing could be monitored by the ODR. This method is possible to be applied to real-time monitoring for oxygen saturation of retinal vessels.