Intercomparison of medical image segmentation algorithms

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the most widely-used high quality imaging techniques, especially for brain imaging, compared to other techniques such as computed tomography and x-rays, mainly because it possesses better soft tissue contrast resolution. There are several stages involved in analyzing an MRI image, segmentation being one of the most important. Image segmentation is essentially the process of identifying and classifying the constituent parts of an image, and is usually very complex. Unfortunately, it suffers from artefacts including noise, partial volume effects and intensity inhomogeneities. Brain, being a very complicated structure, its precise segmentation is particularly necessary to delineate the borders of anatomically distinct regions and possible tumors. Many algorithms have been proposed for image segmentation, the most important being thresholding, region growing, and clustering methods such as k-means and fuzzy c-means algorithms. The main objective of this project was to investigate a representative number of different algorithms and compare their performance. Image segmentation algorithms, including thresholding, region growing, morphological operations and fuzzy c-means were applied to a selection of simulated and real brain MRI images, and the results compared. The project was realized by developing algorithms using the popular Matlab® software package. Qualitative comparisons were performed on real and simulated brain images, while quantitative comparisons were performed on simulated brain images, using a variety of different parameters, and results tabulated. It was found that the fuzzy c-means algorithm performed better than all the other algorithms, both qualitatively and quantitatively. After comparing the performance of all algorithms, it was concluded that, by combining one or two basic algorithms, a more effective algorithm could be developed for image segmentation that is more robust to noise, considers both intensity and spatial characteristics of an image, and which is computationally efficient.Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the most widely-used high quality imaging techniques, especially for brain imaging, compared to other techniques such as computed tomography and x-rays, mainly because it possesses better soft tissue contrast resolution. There are several stages involved in analyzing an MRI image, segmentation being one of the most important. Image segmentation is essentially the process of identifying and classifying the constituent parts of an image, and is usually very complex. Unfortunately, it suffers from artefacts including noise, partial volume effects and intensity inhomogeneities. Brain, being a very complicated structure, its precise segmentation is particularly necessary to delineate the borders of anatomically distinct regions and possible tumors. Many algorithms have been proposed for image segmentation, the most important being thresholding, region growing, and clustering methods such as k-means and fuzzy c-means algorithms. The main objective of this project was to investigate a representative number of different algorithms and compare their performance. Image segmentation algorithms, including thresholding, region growing, morphological operations and fuzzy c-means were applied to a selection of simulated and real brain MRI images, and the results compared. The project was realized by developing algorithms using the popular Matlab® software package. Qualitative comparisons were performed on real and simulated brain images, while quantitative comparisons were performed on simulated brain images, using a variety of different parameters, and results tabulated. It was found that the fuzzy c-means algorithm performed better than all the other algorithms, both qualitatively and quantitatively. After comparing the performance of all algorithms, it was concluded that, by combining one or two basic algorithms, a more effective algorithm could be developed for image segmentation that is more robust to noise, considers both intensity and spatial characteristics of an image, and which is computationally efficient

AUTOMATIC BRAIN TUMOR SEGMENTATION WITH K-MEANS, FUZZY C-MEANS, SELF-ORGANIZING MAP AND OTSU METHODS

AutomatIc BraIn Tumor SegmentatIon wIth K-Means, Fuzzy C-Means, Self-Organizing Map and Otsu MethodsAbstractThe human brain is an amazing organ of the human nervous system and controls all functions of our body. Brain tumors emerge from a mass of abnormal cells in the brain, and catching tumors early often allows for more treatment options. For diagnosing brain tumors, it has been benefited mostly from magnetic resonance images. In this study, we have developed the segmentation systems using the methods as K-Means, Fuzzy C-Means, Self-Organizing Map, Otsu, and the hybrid method of them, and evaluated the methods according to their success rates of segmentation. The developed systems, which take the brain image of MRI as input, perform skull stripping, preprocessing, and segmentation is performed using the clustering algorithms as K-Means, Fuzzy C-Means, Self-Organizing Map and Otsu Methods. Before preprocessing, the skull region is removed from the images in the MRI brain image data set. In preprocessing, the quality of the brain images is enhanced and the noise of the images is removed by some various filtering and morphological techniques. Finally, with the clustering and thresholding techniques, the tumor area of the brain is detected, and then the systems of the segmentation have been evaluated and compared with each other according to accuracy, true positive rate, and true negative rate.Keywords: Brain Tumor Segmentation, Medical Imaging, Fuzzy C-Means, K-Means, Self-Organizing Map, Otsu MethodBulanık C-Ortalamalar, K-Ortalamalar, Özdüzenlemelİ Ağ VE Otsu Metot İLE BEYİN TÜMÖRÜ SEGMENTASYONU Özetİnsan beyni, insan sinir sisteminin en önemli organıdır ve vücudumuzun tamamını kontrol eder. Beyin tümörleri beyindeki normal olmayan hücrelerden oluşur ve tümörleri erken tespit etmek birçok tedavi seçeneklerinin uygulanmasına olanak sağlar. Beyin tümörlerinin teşhisi için çoğunlukla manyetik rezonans görüntülerinden yararlanılmıştır. Bu çalışmada, Bulanık C-Ortalamalar, K-Ortalamalar, Özdüzenlemeli Ağ, Otsu Metot ve bu metotların birleşiminden oluşan hibrid metotlar kullanılarak beyin tümör segmentasyon sistemleri geliştirilmiştir. Bu metotların segmentasyon başarı oranları tespit edilmiş ve birbirleriyle karşılaştırılmıştır. Geliştirilen sistemlerde, ilk olarak MRI beyin görüntülerini girdi olarak alınır, sonra kafatası bölgesinin görüntüden ayrılması, önişleme ve Bulanık C-Ortalamalar, K-Ortalamalar, Özdüzenlemeli Ağ, Otsu metot gibi algoritmalarla segmentasyon işlemleri uygulanır. Önişlemden önce, kafatası bölgesi, MRI beyin görüntüsü veri setindeki görüntülerden çıkarılır. Ön işlemede, beyin görüntülerinin kalitesi iyileştirilir ve görüntülerin gürültüsü, çeşitli filtreleme ve morfolojik tekniklerle kaldırılır. Son olarak, kümeleme ve eşikleme teknikleri ile beynin tümör bölgesi tespit edildi. Daha sonra, segmentasyon sistemleri değerlendirildi ve doğruluk, gerçek pozitif oranı ve gerçek negatif oranına göre birbirleriyle karşılaştırıldı.Anahtar Kelimeler: Beyin Tümörü Segmentasyonu, Tıbbi Görüntüleme, Bulanık C-Ortalamalar, K-Ortalamalar, Özdüzenlemeli Ağ, Otsu Meto

Multispectral segmentation of whole-brain MRI

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a widely used medical technology for diagnosis and detection of various tissue abnormalities, tumor detection, and in evaluation of either residual or recurrent tumors. This thesis work exploits MRI information acquired on brain tumor structure and physiological properties and uses a novel image segmentation technique to better delineate tissue differences.;MR image segmentation will be important in distinguishing between boundaries of different tissues in the brain. A segmentation software tool was developed that combines the different types of clinical MR images and presents them as a single colored image. This technique is based on the fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm. The MR data sets are used to form five-dimensional feature vectors. These vectors are segmented by FCM into six tissue classes for normal brains and nine tissue classes for human brains with tumors. The segmented images are then compared with segmentation performed using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM2)---software that is commonly used for brain tissue segmentation. The results from segmenting the whole volume MRI using FCM show better distinction between tumor tissues than SPM2

Detection of brain tumour in 2d MRI: implementation and critical review of clustering-based image segmentation methods

Image segmentation can be defined as segregation or partitioning of images into multiple regions with the same predefined homogeneity criterion. Image segmentation is a crucial process in medical image analysis. This paper explores and investigates several unsupervised image segmentation approaches and their viability and performances in delineating tumour region in contrast enhanced T1-weighted brain MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans. First and foremost, raw CE T1-weighted brain MR images are downloaded from a free online database. The images are then pre-processed and undergo an important process called skull stripping. Then, image segmentation techniques such as k-means clustering, Gaussian mixture model segmentation and fuzzy c-means are applied to the pre-processed MR images. The image segmentation results are evaluated using several performance measures, such as precision, recall, Tanimoto coefficient and Dice similarity index in reference to ground truth images. The highest average Dice coefficient is achieved by k-means (0.189) before post-processing and GMM (0.208) after post-processing. Unsupervised clustering-based brain tumour segmentation based on just image pixel intensity in single-spectral brain MRI without adaptive post-processing algorithm cannot achieve efficient and robust segmentation results

Challenges in Brain Magnetic Resonance Image Segmentation

Over the past several decades, the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been rapidly expanding in the areas of brain research studies and clinical diagnosis. One of the most important steps in brain MRI data preparation is the removal of unwanted brain regions, which is followed by segmentation of the brain into three main regions – white matter (WM), grey matter (GM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) – or into subregions. In brain MRI analysis, image segmentation is commonly used for measuring and visualizing the brain’s anatomical structures, analyzing brain changes, delineating pathological regions, and surgical planning and image-guided interventions. Brain segmentation allows clinicians and researchers to concentrate on a specific region in the brain in their analyses. However, brain segmentation is a difficult task due to high similarities and correlations of image intensity among brain regions. In this review, image segmentation algorithms used for dividing the brain into different sectors were discussed in detail. The potential for using the fuzzy c-means (FCM) unsupervised clustering algorithm and certain hybrid (combined) methods to segment brain MR images was demonstrated. Additionally, certain validation techniques that are required to demonstrate the performance of segmentation methods in terms of accuracy rates were described.

Glioma Diagnosis Aid through CNNs and Fuzzy-C Means for MRI

Glioma is a type of brain tumor that causes mortality in many cases. Early diagnosis is an important factor. Typically, it is detected through MRI and then either a treatment is applied, or it is removed through surgery. Deep-learning techniques are becoming popular in medical applications and image-based diagnosis. Convolutional Neural Networks are the preferred architecture for object detection and classification in images. In this paper, we present a study to evaluate the efficiency of using CNNs for diagnosis aids in glioma detection and the improvement of the method when using a clustering method (Fuzzy C-means) for preprocessing the input MRI dataset. Results offered an accuracy improvement from 0.77 to 0.81 when using Fuzzy C-Means.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-

Noise-robust method for image segmentation

Segmentation of noisy images is one of the most challenging problems in image analysis and any improvement of segmentation methods can highly influence the performance of many image processing applications. In automated image segmentation, the fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering has been widely used because of its ability to model uncertainty within the data, applicability to multi-modal data and fairly robust behaviour. However, the standard FCM algorithm does not consider any information about the spatial linage context and is highly sensitive to noise and other imaging artefacts. Considering above mentioned problems, we developed a new FCM-based approach for the noise-robust fuzzy clustering and we present it in this paper. In this new iterative algorithm we incorporated both spatial and feature space information into the similarity measure and the membership function. We considered that spatial information depends on the relative location and features of the neighbouring pixels. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on synthetic image with different noise levels and real images. Experimental quantitative and qualitative segmentation results show that our method efficiently preserves the homogeneity of the regions and is more robust to noise than other FCM-based methods