Gaussian Bayes classifier for medical diagnosis and grading: Application to diabetic retinopathy

Data from medical imaging system need to be analysed for diagnostics and clinical purposes. In a computerized system, the analysis normally involves classification process to determine disease and its condition. In an earlier work based on a database of 315 fundus images (FINDeRS), it is found that the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) enlargement strongly correlates with diabetic retinopathy (DR) progression having a correlation factor up to 0.883 at significant levels better than 0.01. However, it is also found that the FAZ areas can belong to different DR severity but with different levels of certainty having a Gaussian distribution. In this research work, the suitability of the Gaussian Bayes classifier in determining DR severity level is investigated. A v-fold cross-validation (VFCF) process is applied to the FINDeRS database to evaluate the performance of the classifier. It is shown that the classifier achieved sensitivity of >84%, specificity of >97% and accuracy of >95% for all DR stages. At high values of sensitivity (>95%), specificity (>97%) and accuracy (>98%) obtained for No DR and Severe NPDR/PDR stages, the Gaussian Bayes classifier is suitable as part of a computerised DR grading and monitoring system for early detection of DR and for effective treatment of severe cases.