The effect of compression on clinical diagnosis of glaucoma based on non-analyzed confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy images

Abstract

Knowledge of the effect of compression of ophthalmic images on diagnostic reading is essential for effective tele-ophthalmology applications. It was therefore with great anticipation that I read the article “The Effect of Compression on Clinical Diagnosis of Glaucoma Based on Non-analyzed Confocal Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy Images,” by Bélair et al. in the July/August 2005 issue of Ophthalmic Surgery, Lasers & Imaging. 1 The authors compared diagnostic accuracy of independent observers based on HRT images in different compressed and uncompressed formats, including lossy JPEG compression, lossy JPEG 2000 compression, lossy GIF compression, and lossless PNG and TIFF compression. Their choice to include PNG, a format not supported by most popular image viewers, allows an unexpected verification of their results.