## 2 Materials and Methods  
### Data Collection and Analysis  
The study was conducted on a sample of 52 patients: more particularly, 101 eyes with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) + diabetes mellitus (DM); and the effectiveness of the classification algorithm in assessing retinal changes related to diabetes was demonstrated. The study was approved by the Ethics Commission of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy \"[PERSON]\", lasi, approval no.15626/28.07.2015, in compliance with ethical and deontological rules for medical practice. The evaluation took place in the Ophthalmology Clinic I. of the Hospital \"St. Spiridon\" and was made at a six monthly interval for a period of two years.  
The considered criteria in this study were: normal or hypertensive open-angle glaucoma, intraocular hypertension and associated diabetes. Patients with severe and proliferative retinopathy were excluded. The patients with other types of glaucoma (pseudo exfoliation, pigment, cortisone, neovascular and primitive closed angle) and those without associated diabetes were also excluded. The criteria for diagnosing normal or hypertensive POAG were: age > 35 years, or normal IOP, or >21 mmHg without treatment, open anterior chamber angle in Borisoscopy, optic nerve damage specific to glaucoma (ratio cup/disk--c/d > 0.5), abnormal visual field (through Humphrey Field Analyzer perimetry) and retinal nerve fibber layer with diffuse or localized defects (optic coherence tomography--Cirrus HD OCT Zeiss) [23]. The diagnosis of intraocular hypertension, according to the glaucoma guide, is based on the following criteria: age over 35 years, intraocular pressure (IOP) is higher than 21 mm Hg, normal visual field and optic nerve appearance [23]. The assessment of diabetic retinopathy changes was carried out with [PERSON] and Fundus Camera Zeiss retinal photography, on the dilated pupil, following their presence in all quadrants. The criteria for classifying the diabetic retinopathy (DR) (Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study--ETDRS) changes were: without changes (absence of DR), mild form of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (the presence of a single micro aneurysm), moderate form (micro aneurysms, hemorrhages in 2-3 quadrants, venous dilatations and soft exudates in a quadrant), severe form (micro aneurysms, hemorrhages in all quadrants, venous dilatation in 2-3 quadrants) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (disk and retinal neovascularization in different quadrants). Any new clinical element that occurred in subsequent checks, which led to their inclusion in severe nonproliferative or proliferative forms of diabetic retinopathy, was considered to be a progression of diabetic retinopathy [1].  
The patient evaluation tests were performed by the same ophthalmologist and the analysis of the data collected by the SVM-DE method was made by the specialists in computer science (artificial intelligence). The interpretation of the results was made by both category of specialists.  
Within the classification algorithm, the following values were selected as inclusion parameters: glaucoma duration (A), diabetes duration (B), c/d ratio (C), glycosylatedhemoglobin (D), intraocular pressure (E), patient age (F), MD--mean deviation (H) (MD is a parameter for measuring the degree of damage in glaucoma. The higher the negative value, the more important the change in glaucoma) and lens appearance (G). The appearance of the lens was coded as follows: 0--no changes and 1--with changes. The exit parameter considered was the presence or absence of diabetic retinopathy changes. In regard to the exit parameter (I), the value \"1\" was used to mark the presence of mild DR changes, the value \"2\" for moderate and severe changes and \"0\" for no changes.