Comprehensive Assessment of Retinal Vasculature (CARV) -
Summary
Teleretinal programs have expanded in recent years, primarily to screen for diabetic
retinopathy. Accurate and consistent assessment of the retinal vasculature, which often sustains
damage as a result of cardiovascular disease, would advance teleretinal screening in terms of
robustness and cost. Unfortunately, assessing changes to the retinal vasculature and quantifying
abnormalities in retinal images has proven more difficult. Semi-automatic methods are reported
to reduce grader variability, but they are time-consuming, requiring extensive reader
interaction, thus limiting the overall effectiveness of a teleretinal screening program.
VisionQuest Biomedical and its collaborator, the Retina Institute of South Texas (RIST), will
demonstrate a software tool for comprehensive assessment of retinal vasculature (CARV) to aid
readers in the quantitative characterization of vascular abnormalities and identification of those
images with features indicative of potential sight-threatening or life-threatening conditions.
CARV will provide the reader real-time artery to vein ratio (AVR) measurements, an accepted
clinical value for determining risk of future stroke or hypertensive events, as well as
measurements associated with branching patterns and tortuosity. It will also incorporate
detection algorithms for features such as copper and silver wiring, AV nicking, and emboli. Our
goal is to provide an aid to the retinal grader for detecting and quantifying common retinal
vessel abnormalities with high agreement with the gold standard, a retinal specialist. In this
Phase I we will also implement clinically accepted quantitative measurements for vasculature
parameters.
CARV, which can be integrated into a teleretinal system for diabetics, will allow graders to
consistently identify signs of hypertensive retinopathy and CVD-related conditions and
providers to exploit the full potential of teleretinal screening.
