Applications of fractals in medicine

Abstract

The mathematical concept of fractals characterized irregular and broken objects, with details on all scales of observation and whose dimension can be non-integer. A fractal organization controls the structures at all levels of the human body. Euclidean geometry is powerless to study irregularities in these structures. For cons, the fractal analysis tools allow us to model it with an impressive realism. We discuss in this work the contribution of fractals in the diagnostic of the diabetic retinopathy, by a non-invasive method. We will take two samples of each ten retinal images, one is normal and the other is pathological. We will calculate the fractal dimensions for each sample. The comparison of the values obtained for the two samples have led to a significant result, allowing distinguish between normal retinas of pathological retinas.