Comprehensive review of retinal blood vessel segmentation and classification techniques: intelligent solutions for green computing in medical images, current challenges, open issues, and knowledge gaps in fundus medical images

Recently, there has been an advancement in the development of innovative computer-aided techniques for the segmentation and classification of retinal vessels, the application of which is predominant in clinical applications. Consequently, this study aims to provide a detailed overview of the techniques available for segmentation and classification of retinal vessels. Initially, retinal fundus photography and retinal image patterns are briefly introduced. Then, an introduction to the pre-processing operations and advanced methods of identifying retinal vessels is deliberated. In addition, a discussion on the validation stage and assessment of the outcomes of retinal vessels segmentation is presented. In this paper, the proposed methods of classifying arteries and veins in fundus images are extensively reviewed, which are categorized into automatic and semi-automatic categories. There are some challenges associated with the classification of vessels in images of the retinal fundus, which include the low contrast accompanying the fundus image and the inhomogeneity of the background lighting. The inhomogeneity occurs as a result of the process of imaging, whereas the low contrast which accompanies the image is caused by the variation between the background and the contrast of the various blood vessels. This means that the contrast of thicker vessels is higher than those that are thinner. Another challenge is related to the color changes that occur in the retina from different subjects, which are rooted in biological features. Most of the techniques used for the classification of the retinal vessels are based on geometric and visual characteristics that set the veins apart from the arteries. In this study, different major contributions are summarized as review studies that adopted deep learning approaches and machine learning techniques to address each of the limitations and problems in retinal blood vessel segmentation and classification techniques. We also review the current challenges, knowledge gaps and open issues, limitations and problems in retinal blood vessel segmentation and classification techniques.