SUPPORT VECTOR MACHINE MODELS FOR DIABETIC RETINOPATHY DIAGNOSIS AND GRADING

This work applies five variants of the support vector machine to the classification of the various stages of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy. Four hundred eye fundus images from the Messidor repository are preprocessed and thirteen features extracted. The features best suited as inputs for support vector machine classification are identified. Initially, binary classification of severe nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy alone versus a normal eye is performed, achieving an accuracy of 97.44% using the standard support vector machine with Gaussian kernel and when optimized for accuracy. When optimized for sensitivity, the twin bounded support vector machine achieves the highest sensitivity of 99.06%. Then multiclass grading into all four stages of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy is performed. Best performance with regards to four performance metrics, namely accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and precision is achieved with the twin bounded support vector machine variant, when one-versus-one decision configuration is used in combination with a novel decision strategy that includes accumulated distances from the decision hyperplanes in the decision algorithm. The results compare favorably with data published in the literature.