Glaucoma feature detection to aid clinical diagnosis

Abstract

Glaucoma is an eye condition causing damage to the optic nerve. The optic nerve is responsible for transmitting images from the retina, which is the specialized light sensing tissue, to the brain to provide us with our vision. In glaucoma, increased fluid pressure, also known as intraocular pressure (IOP), is the main cause in damaging the delicate nerve fibres of the optic nerve. When the condition worsens, fibres are damaged and blind spots starts to develop in the field of vision. Once the optic nerve are damaged and visual is lost, it is permanent. Glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness, responsible for 9%-12% of all cases of complete vision loss in the United States and effecting nearly 70 million people around the world. Since the disease is initially asymptomatic, research shows that nearly half of those with glaucoma are not aware of their illness.