Improved Watershed Algorithm-Based Microscopic Images Combined with Meibomian Gland Microprobe in the Treatment of Demodectic Blepharitis

Abstract

The objective of the study was to explore microscopic images under a watershed segmentation algorithm combined with meibomian gland microprobe in the treatment of demodectic blepharitis. For segmenting the connected target objects in the image, the watershed algorithm was utilized first to obtain the target region in the image, and then, the fuzzy $C$ -means (FCM) clustering algorithm was used to cluster the targets. The different grayscale regions in the microscopic images were segmented. 90 patients with demodectic blepharitis-related dry eyes were selected, and they were divided into experimental group 1 (group E1, $n=30$ ), experimental group 2 (group E2, $n=30$ ), and control group (group CG, $n=30$ ). The breakup time (BUT) of the tear film, the subjective score of clinical symptoms, and the number of mites were compared among the three groups before and after treatment. The results showed that after treatment, the indicators of group E1 and group E2 were significantly lower than those before treatment, and the differences were statistically significant ( $P<0.05$ ). The treatment effect of group E1 was significantly better than that of the other two groups ( $P<0.05$ ). The subjective clinical symptom scores of groups E1, E2, and CG were $13.43\pm 1.41$ , $13.51\pm 1.41$ , and $13.64\pm 0.84$ , respectively, before treatment, and those after treatment were $3.1\pm 1.841$ , $5.4\pm 0.661$ , and $13.4\pm 0.841$ , respectively. The clinical sign scores of the groups E1 and E2 after treatment were remarkably different from those before treatment ( $P<0.05$ ). Compared with the scores of clinical signs and clinical symptoms after treatment, those of group E1 showed the largest differences, indicating the best treatment effect. In conclusion, the treatment effect of blepharitis could be promoted with the improved watershed algorithm, and the microscopic images combined with meibomian gland microprobe gave the better effect in the treatment of demodectic blepharitis than the conventional drug heat compress.