Automated Corneal Endothelial Cell Morphometry

This research is aimed at the development of an automated system for corneal endothelial cellcounting and morphology analysis. This system will be useful for both researcher and clinicians. Theincorporation of direct high-resolution acquisition of endothelial cell images, which allows analysis of cellmorphology at the time of acquisition, will have a significant impact on clinical uses. These automatedtechniques for rapid quantitative analysis of corneal endothelial cell morphology derived from specularmicroscope images would have a significant impact on evaluating the endothelium pre and post surgery,including intraocular lens implantation and phacoemulsification. Techniques for temporal imageregistration, based on cell pattern recognition, for patient follow-up will be included and will greatlyexpand the potential market. In Phase I, a prototype system for automated endothelial cell counting andmorphology analysis will be developed. This system will be based on image enhancement andmorphological techniques for automated endothelial cell discrimination, segmentation and measurement.The potential for direct high-resolution acquisition of endothelial cell images will also be investigated.