BROSSARD, QUEBEC — (Marketwired) — 07/14/15 — DIAGNOS Inc. (“DIAGNOS” or “the Corporation”) (TSX VENTURE: ADK), a leader in healthcare technical services including, screening, software and algorithm development, data analysis and image processing, is pleased to announce new impressive results for the early automatic detection for people affected by Glaucoma.
Glaucoma, a group of diseases that lead to optic neuropathy, is the second leading cause of blindness in the world, according to the World Health Organization. Glaucoma rarely causes symptoms until the later stages of the disease, and epidemiology surveys in North America and Europe have shown that approximately 50% of cases are undetected. Early detection and prevention is the only way to treat glaucoma and avoid total loss of vision since the optic nerve damages from glaucoma cannot be reversed.
Doctors diagnose glaucoma based on several factors: the patient–s family history, intraocular pressure, central corneal thickness, appearance of the anterior chamber angle, optic nerve appearance, optic nerve structure including the nerve fiber layer, and optic nerve function. Currently, a diagnosis can–t be made based on a single finding. For example, high intraocular pressure is a primary thing to look for to detect glaucoma, and yet a third of glaucoma patients have normal eye pressure. Most glaucoma tests are very time consuming and also need glaucoma experts and diagnosis equipment. Therefore, new automatic techniques to diagnose glaucoma at early stages are needed with both accuracy and speed.
To detect glaucoma, purely data-driven techniques have advantages, especially when the disease characteristics are complex and when precise image-based measurements are difficult to obtain. Some of Various techniques in glaucoma detection are based on image segmentation of the optic disk structure, usually for cup/disc ratio (CDR) measurement. The drawback of segmentation-based techniques is that small errors in localization may lead to significant errors in the measurements and consequently in the diagnosis.
“Automatic screening of Glaucoma will result in early detection and early treatment. Our method achieved an impressive recognition rate of 95:1%, with a specificity of 92:3% and a sensitivity of 96:4%. This low cost approach, In contrast to the previous work, does not require manual assistance, complex preprocessing, morphological operations nor segmentation. In addition, this method is robust to both image quality, fundus camera model and to the presence of diabetic retinopathy thus avoiding the inter-experts variability issue. We are very proud having achieved these results and look forward including the new algorithms to the existing CARA platform as an add-on to be applied on the current images taken for CARA for early detection of the Diabetic Retinopathy. This will open a new market and revenue stream to DIAGNOS”, stated Houssem Ben Tahar, Diagnos– Vice-President – Development and Business Intelligence.
It is estimated that over 3 million Americans have glaucoma but only half of those know they have it. In the U.S., more than 120,000 are blind from glaucoma, accounting for 9% to 12% of all cases of blindness, and for over 10 million visits to physicians each year.
About CARA
CARA is a tele-ophthalmology platform that integrates with ophthalmic imaging equipment (hardware and software) and processes at the point of care (POC) and comprises: image upload, image enhancement automated pre-screening, grading by a specialist, and referral to a specialist. CARA–s image enhancement algorithms make standard retinal images sharper, clearer, and easier to read. CARA is accessible securely over the internet, and is compatible with all recognized image formats and brands of fundus cameras, and is EMR compatible. CARA is a cost-effective tool for screening large numbers of patients, in real-time and has been approved by regulatory authorities including Health Canada, US Food and Drug Administration, and the European Union. CARA is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent diabetic retinopathy or any other disease.
About DIAGNOS
Founded in 1998, DIAGNOS is a publicly traded Canadian corporation with a mission to commercialize technologies combining contextual imaging and traditional data mining thereby improving decision making processes. DIAGNOS offers products, services, and solutions to clients in a variety of fields including healthcare and natural resources.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
For further information on DIAGNOS, please visit our website at or the SEDAR website at .
Contacts:
Andre Larente, President
DIAGNOS Inc.
(450) 678-8882 ext 224
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