MaculaTEST - Computer aided diagnosis system for macular diseases

Bordering on important domains - engineering, medicine and informatics, involving not only knowledge regarding the biosystems structure and functionality, but also knowledge and skills from technical and IT systems, the paper presents the results of some researches on biological human visual structures concerning the diagnosis of visual diseases, namely the macular ones. This is a highly important transdisciplinary topic; it combines aspects from biosystems (human visual system), image acquisition and processing (medical imagistic), artificial intelligence techniques (neural networks) and information management (databases). Starting from classical or digital retina images, using neural networks image recognition algorithms, the Computer Aided Diagnosis (CADx) system identifies macular diseases with high precision. Images are stored in databases together with patient personal details and treatments and diagnosis information. The software includes image processing modules, databases and neural networks that can be trained for recognizing images of new diseases. The Computer Aided Diagnosis reduces the doctor's level of incertitude regarding some diseases, improves the initial and evolutional identification precision of disease, allows to monitor the health status of the patient during new treatment methods, stores images in digital format and generates diagnosis databases that can be used in research, medical practice and specialized teaching.