A robust adaptive wavelet-based method for classification of meningioma histology images

Intra-class variability in the texture of samples is an important problem in the domain of histological image classification. This issue is inherent to the field due to the high complexity of histology image data. A technique that provides good results in one trial may fail in another when the test and training data are changed and therefore, the technique needs to be adapted for intra-class texture variation. In this paper, we present a novel wavelet based multiresolution analysis approach to meningioma subtype classification in response to the challenge of data variation.We analyze the stability of Adaptive Discriminant Wavelet Packet Transform (ADWPT) and present a solution to the issue of variation in the ADWPT decomposition when texture in data changes. A feature selection approach is proposed that provides high classification accuracy

Tumour grading and discrimination based on class assignment and quantitative texture analysis techniques

Medical imaging represents the utilisation of technology in biology for the purpose of noninvasively revealing the internal structure of the organs of the human body. It is a way to improve the quality of the patient's life through a more precise and rapid diagnosis, and with limited side-effects, leading to an effective overall treatment procedure. The main objective of this thesis is to propose novel tumour discrimination techniques that cover both micro and macro-scale textures encountered in computed tomography (CI') and digital microscopy (DM) modalities, respectively. Image texture can provide significant information on the (ab)normality of tissue, and this thesis expands this idea to tumour texture grading and classification. The fractal dimension (FO) as a texture measure was applied to contrast enhanced CT lung tumour images in an aim to improve tumour grading accuracy from conventional CI' modality, and quantitative performance analysis showed an accuracy of 83.30% in distinguishing between advanced (aggressive) and early stage (non-aggressive) malignant tumours. A different approach was adopted for subtype discrimination of brain tumour OM images via a set of statistical and model-based texture analysis algorithms. The combined Gaussian Markov random field and run-length matrix texture measures outperformed all other combinations, achieving an overall class assignment classification accuracy of 92.50%. Also two new histopathological multi resolution approaches based on applying the FO as the best bases selection for discrete wavelet packet transform, and when fused with the Gabor filters' energy output improved the accuracy to 91.25% and 95.00%, respectively. While noise is quite common in all medical imaging modalities, the impact of noise on the applied texture measures was assessed as well. The developed lung and brain texture analysis techniques can improve the physician's ability to detect and analyse pathologies leading for a more reliable diagnosis and treatment of disease

Histopathological image analysis : a review

Over the past decade, dramatic increases in computational power and improvement in image analysis algorithms have allowed the development of powerful computer-assisted analytical approaches to radiological data. With the recent advent of whole slide digital scanners, tissue histopathology slides can now be digitized and stored in digital image form. Consequently, digitized tissue histopathology has now become amenable to the application of computerized image analysis and machine learning techniques. Analogous to the role of computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) algorithms in medical imaging to complement the opinion of a radiologist, CAD algorithms have begun to be developed for disease detection, diagnosis, and prognosis prediction to complement the opinion of the pathologist. In this paper, we review the recent state of the art CAD technology for digitized histopathology. This paper also briefly describes the development and application of novel image analysis technology for a few specific histopathology related problems being pursued in the United States and Europe

Meningioma classification using an adaptive discriminant wavelet packet transform

Meningioma subtypes classification is a real world problem from the domain of histological image analysis that requires new methods for its resolution. Computerised histopathology presents a whole new set of problems and introduces new challenges in image classification. High intra-class variation and low inter-class differences in textures is often an issue in histological image analysis problems such as Meningioma subtypes classification. In this thesis, we present an adaptive wavelets based technique that adapts to the variation in the texture of meningioma samples and provides high classification accuracy results. The technique provides a mechanism for attaining an image representation consisting of various spatial frequency resolutions that represent the image and are referred to as subbands. Each subband provides different information pertaining to the texture in the image sample. Our novel method, the Adaptive Discriminant Wavelet Packet Transform (ADWPT), provides a means for selecting the most useful subbands and hence, achieves feature selection. It also provides a mechanism for ranking features based upon the discrimination power of a subband. The more discriminant a subband, the better it is for classification. The results show that high classification accuracies are obtained by selecting subbands with high discrimination power. Moreover, subbands that are more stable i.e. have a higher probability of being selected provide better classification accuracies. Stability and discrimination power have been shown to have a direct relationship with classification accuracy. Hence, ADWPT acquires a subset of subbands that provide a highly discriminant and robust set of features for Meningioma subtype classification. Classification accuracies obtained are greater than 90% for most Meningioma subtypes. Consequently, ADWPT is a robust and adaptive technique which enables it to overcome the issue of high intra-class variation by statistically selecting the most useful subbands for meningioma subtype classification. It overcomes the issue of low inter-class variation by adapting to texture samples and extracting the subbands that are best for differentiating between the various meningioma subtype textures

xPath: Human-AI Diagnosis in Pathology with Multi-Criteria Analyses and Explanation by Hierarchically Traceable Evidence

Data-driven AI promises support for pathologists to discover sparse tumor patterns in high-resolution histological images. However, from a pathologist's point of view, existing AI suffers from three limitations: (i) a lack of comprehensiveness where most AI algorithms only rely on a single criterion; (ii) a lack of explainability where AI models tend to work as 'black boxes' with little transparency; and (iii) a lack of integrability where it is unclear how AI can become part of pathologists' existing workflow. Based on a formative study with pathologists, we propose two designs for a human-AI collaborative tool: (i) presenting joint analyses of multiple criteria at the top level while (ii) revealing hierarchically traceable evidence on-demand to explain each criterion. We instantiate such designs in xPath -- a brain tumor grading tool where a pathologist can follow a top-down workflow to oversee AI's findings. We conducted a technical evaluation and work sessions with twelve medical professionals in pathology across three medical centers. We report quantitative and qualitative feedback, discuss recurring themes on how our participants interacted with xPath, and provide initial insights for future physician-AI collaborative tools.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figure

Mitotic cell detection in H&E stained meningioma histopathology slides

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Meningioma represent more than one-third of all primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors, and it can be classified into three grades according to WHO (World Health Organization) in terms of clinical aggressiveness and risk of recurrence. A key component of meningioma grades is the mitotic count, which is defined as quantifying the number of cells in the process of dividing (i.e., undergoing mitosis) at a specific point in time. Currently, mitosis counting is done manually by a pathologist looking at 10 consecutive high-power fields (HPF) on a glass slide under a microscope, which is an extremely laborious and time-consuming process. The goal of this thesis is to investigate the use of computerized methods to automate the detection of mitotic nuclei with limited labeled data. We built computational methods to detect and quantify the histological features of mitotic cells on a whole slides image which mimic the exact process of pathologist workflow. Since we do not have enough training data from meningioma slide, we learned the mitotic cell features through public available breast cancer datasets, and predicted on meingioma slide for accuracy. We use either handcrafted features that capture certain morphological, statistical, or textural attributes of mitoses or features learned with convolutional neural networks (CNN). Hand crafted features are inspired by the domain knowledge, while the data-driven VGG16 models tend to be domain agnostic and attempt to learn additional feature bases that cannot be represented through any of the handcrafted features. Our work on detection of mitotic cells shows 100% recall , 9% precision and 0.17 F1 score. The detection using VGG16 performs with 71% recall, 73% precision, and 0.77 F1 score. Finally, this research of automated image analysis could drastically increase diagnostic efficiency and reduce inter-observer variability and errors in pathology diagnosis, which would allow fewer pathologists to serve more patients while maintaining diagnostic accuracy and precision. And all these methodologies will increasingly transform practice of pathology, allowing it to mature toward a quantitative science