Evaluating tortuosity in retinal fundus images of diabetic patients who progressed to diabetic retinopathy

Tortuosity is believed to be an early indicator of the changes in the retinal vasculature during the progression of diabetes. Different methods have been proposed in literature but their application in progressed patients (from diabetes to DR) has been inadequate. In this study different metrics of tortuosity were measured using twenty fives diabetic patients in two time intervals; three to four years before DR and the first year of diabetic retinopathy. The standard deviation of the tortuosity measurements differed significantly showing an increase in the variability of tortuosity in the vasculature in the first year of DR by 19.6%.