Detection of Lung Nodules on Medical Images by the Use of Fractal Segmentation

In the present paper, a method for the detection of malignant and benign tumors on the CT scan images has been proposed. In the proposed method, firstly the area of interest in which the tumor may exist is selected on the original image and by the use of image segmentation and determination of the image’s threshold limit, the tumor’s area is specified and then edge detection filters are used for detection of the tumor’s edge. After detection of area and by calculating the fractal dimensions with less percent of errors and better resolution, the areas where contain the tumor are determined. The images used in the proposed method have been extracted from cancer imaging archive database that is made available for public. Compared to other methods, our proposed method recognizes successfully benign and malignant tumors in all cases that have been clinically approved and belong to the database

Full-resolution Lung Nodule Segmentation from Chest X-ray Images using Residual Encoder-Decoder Networks

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death and early diagnosis is associated with a positive prognosis. Chest X-ray (CXR) provides an inexpensive imaging mode for lung cancer diagnosis. Suspicious nodules are difficult to distinguish from vascular and bone structures using CXR. Computer vision has previously been proposed to assist human radiologists in this task, however, leading studies use down-sampled images and computationally expensive methods with unproven generalization. Instead, this study localizes lung nodules using efficient encoder-decoder neural networks that process full resolution images to avoid any signal loss resulting from down-sampling. Encoder-decoder networks are trained and tested using the JSRT lung nodule dataset. The networks are used to localize lung nodules from an independent external CXR dataset. Sensitivity and false positive rates are measured using an automated framework to eliminate any observer subjectivity. These experiments allow for the determination of the optimal network depth, image resolution and pre-processing pipeline for generalized lung nodule localization. We find that nodule localization is influenced by subtlety, with more subtle nodules being detected in earlier training epochs. Therefore, we propose a novel self-ensemble model from three consecutive epochs centered on the validation optimum. This ensemble achieved a sensitivity of 85% in 10-fold internal testing with false positives of 8 per image. A sensitivity of 81% is achieved at a false positive rate of 6 following morphological false positive reduction. This result is comparable to more computationally complex systems based on linear and spatial filtering, but with a sub-second inference time that is faster than other methods. The proposed algorithm achieved excellent generalization results against an external dataset with sensitivity of 77% at a false positive rate of 7.6

Cancer Detection Using Neuro Fuzzy Classifier in CT Images

In this study, we have implemented an adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for detection of mass in CT images for early diagnosis of lung cancer. After completion of preprocessing and segmentation process four features have been extracted from images and given to ANFIS classifier as an input. The fuzzy system detects the severity of the lung nodules depends on IF-THEN rules. Feature based data set has been created with five fuzzy membership functions of each input. The proposed model is applied on more than 150 images and the computer added diagnosis (CAD) system achieved sensitivity of 97.27% and specificity of 95% with accuracy of 96.66%

Computer-assisted diagnosis for an early identification of lung cancer in chest X rays

Lung cancer; X-rays; Computer-assisted diagnosisCáncer de pulmón; Rayos X; Diagnóstico asistido por computadoraCàncer de pulmó; Raigs X; Diagnòstic assistit per ordinadorComputer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) algorithms have shown its usefulness for the identification of pulmonary nodules in chest x-rays, but its capability to diagnose lung cancer (LC) is unknown. A CAD algorithm for the identification of pulmonary nodules was created and used on a retrospective cohort of patients with x-rays performed in 2008 and not examined by a radiologist when obtained. X-rays were sorted according to the probability of pulmonary nodule, read by a radiologist and the evolution for the following three years was assessed. The CAD algorithm sorted 20,303 x-rays and defined four subgroups with 250 images each (percentiles ≥ 98, 66, 33 and 0). Fifty-eight pulmonary nodules were identified in the ≥ 98 percentile (23,2%), while only 64 were found in lower percentiles (8,5%) (p < 0.001). A pulmonary nodule was confirmed by the radiologist in 39 out of 173 patients in the high-probability group who had follow-up information (22.5%), and in 5 of them a LC was diagnosed with a delay of 11 months (12.8%). In one quarter of the chest x-rays considered as high-probability for pulmonary nodule by a CAD algorithm, the finding is confirmed and corresponds to an undiagnosed LC in one tenth of the cases

A Mini Review of Trends towards Automated and Non-Invasive Techniques for Early Detection of Lung Cancer: From Radiomics through Proteogenomics to Breathomics

Carcinoma of the Lung is one of the most common cancers in the world and the leading cause of tumor-related deaths. Less than 15% of patients survive 5 years post diagnosis due to its relatively poor prognosis. This has been ascribed to lack of effective diagnostic methods for early detection. Different medical imaging techniques such as chest radiography, Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are used in routine clinical practice for tumor detection. These techniques are medically unsatisfactory and inconvenient for patients due to poor diagnostic accuracy. Endobronchial biopsies are the gold standard for diagnosis but have the inherent risk of full or partial invasive procedures. Thus, diagnostic technology that uses data mining algorithms with medical image analysis, generally known as radiomics emerged. Radiomics extracts complex information from conventional radiographic images and quantitatively correlates image features with diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes. In spite of the benefits, radiomics is prone to high false positives and there is no established standard for acquisition of parameters. Further efforts towards outcome improvement led to the proteomic and genomic (proteogenomic) approach to lung cancer detection. Although proteogenomic has a diagnostic edge over traditional techniques, variations in bio-specimen and heterogeneity of lung cancer still possess a major challenge. Recent findings have established that changes normally occur in the gene or protein due to tumor growth in the lungs and this often leads to peroxidation of cell membrane that releases Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) through the breath of Lung Cancer patients. The comprehensive analysis of breath VOCs, which is tagged Breathomics in the literature,unveils opportunities for noninvasive biomarker discovery towards early detection. Breathomics has therefore become the current pace-setter in medical diagnostics research because of its non-invasiveness and cost effectiveness. This paper presents a mini survey of trends in early lung cancer detection from radiomics, through proteogenomic to breathomics

Classificação de nódulos pulmonares baseada em redes neurais convolucionais profundas em radiografias

Orientador: Hélio PedriniDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: O câncer de pulmão, que se caracteriza pela presença de nódulos, é o tipo mais comum de câncer em todo o mundo, além de ser um dos mais agressivos e fatais, com 20% da mortalidade total por câncer. A triagem do câncer de pulmão pode ser realizada por radiologistas que analisam imagens de raios-X de tórax (CXR). No entanto, a detecção de nódulos pulmonares é uma tarefa difícil devido a sua grande variabilidade, limitações humanas de memória, distração e fadiga, entre outros fatores. Essas dificuldades motivam o desenvolvimento de sistemas de diagnóstico por computador (CAD) para apoiar radiologistas na detecção de nódulos pulmonares. A classificação do nódulo do pulmão é um dos principais tópicos relacionados aos sistemas de CAD. Embora as redes neurais convolucionais (CNN) tenham demonstrado um bom desempenho em muitas tarefas, há poucas explorações de seu uso para classificar nódulos pulmonares em imagens CXR. Neste trabalho, propusemos e analisamos um arcabouço para a detecção de nódulos pulmonares em imagens de CXR que inclui segmentação da área pulmonar, localização de nódulos e classificação de nódulos candidatos. Apresentamos um método para classificação de nódulos candidatos com CNNs treinadas a partir do zero. A eficácia do nosso método baseia-se na seleção de parâmetros de aumento de dados, no projeto de uma arquitetura CNN especializada, no uso da regularização de dropout na rede, inclusive em camadas convolucionais, e no tratamento da falta de amostras de nódulos em comparação com amostras de fundo, balanceando mini-lotes em cada iteração da descida do gradiente estocástico. Todas as decisões de seleção do modelo foram tomadas usando-se um subconjunto de imagens CXR da base Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative (LIDC/IDRI) separadamente. Então, utilizamos todas as imagens com nódulos no conjunto de dados da Japanese Society of Radiological Technology (JSRT) para avaliação. Nossos experimentos mostraram que as CNNs foram capazes de alcançar resultados competitivos quando comparados com métodos da literatura. Nossa proposta obteve uma curva de operação (AUC) de 7.51 considerando 10 falsos positivos por imagem (FPPI) e uma sensibilidade de 71.4% e 81.0% com 2 e 5 FPPI, respectivamenteAbstract: Lung cancer, which is characterized by the presence of nodules, is the most common type of cancer around the world, as well as one of the most aggressive and deadliest cancer, with 20% of total cancer mortality. Lung cancer screening can be performed by radiologists analyzing chest X-ray (CXR) images. However, the detection of lung nodules is a difficult task due to their wide variability, human limitations of memory, distraction and fatigue, among other factors. These difficulties motivate the development of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems for supporting radiologists in detecting lung nodules. Lung nodule classification is one of the main topics related to CAD systems. Although convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been demonstrated to perform well on many tasks, there are few explorations of their use for classifying lung nodules in CXR images. In this work, we proposed and analyzed a pipeline for detecting lung nodules in CXR images that includes lung area segmentation, potential nodule localization, and nodule candidate classification. We presented a method for classifying nodule candidates with a CNN trained from the scratch. The effectiveness of our method relies on the selection of data augmentation parameters, the design of a specialized CNN architecture, the use of dropout regularization on the network, inclusive in convolutional layers, and addressing the lack of nodule samples compared to background samples balancing mini-batches on each stochastic gradient descent iteration. All model selection decisions were taken using a CXR subset of the Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative (LIDC/IDRI) dataset separately. Thus, we used all images with nodules in the Japanese Society of Radiological Technology (JSRT) dataset for evaluation. Our experiments showed that CNNs were capable of achieving competitive results when compared to state-of-the-art methods. Our proposal obtained an area under the free-response receiver operating characteristic (AUC) curve of 7.51 considering 10 false positives per image (FPPI), and a sensitivity of 71.4% and 81.0% with 2 and 5 FPPI, respectivelyMestradoCiência da ComputaçãoMestre em Ciência da ComputaçãoCAPE

Fully automatic image analysis framework for cervical vertebra in X-ray images

Despite the advancement in imaging technologies, a fifth of the injuries in the cervical spine remain unnoticed in the X-ray radiological exam. About a two-third of the subjects with unnoticed injuries suffer tragic consequences. Based on the success of computer-aided systems in several medical image modalities to enhance clinical interpretation, we have proposed a fully automatic image analysis framework for cervical vertebrae in X-ray images. The framework takes an X-ray image as input and highlights different vertebral features at the output. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fully automatic system in the literature for the analysis of the cervical vertebrae. The complete framework has been built by cascading specialized modules, each of which addresses a specific computer vision problem. This dissertation explores data-driven supervised machine learning solutions to these problems. Given an input X-ray image, the first module localizes the spinal region. The second module predicts vertebral centers from the spinal region which are then used to generate vertebral image patches. These patches are then passed through machine learning modules that detect vertebral corners, highlight vertebral boundaries, segment vertebral body and predict vertebral shapes. In the process of building the complete framework, we have proposed and compared different solutions to the problems addressed by each of the modules. A novel region-aware dense classification deep neural network has been proposed for the first module to address the spine localization problem. The proposed network outperformed the standard dense classification network and random forestbased methods. Location of the vertebral centers and corners vary based on human interpretation and thus are better represented by probability maps than single points. To learn the mapping between the vertebral image patches and the probability maps, a novel neural network capable of predicting a spatially distributed probabilistic distribution has been proposed. The network achieved expert-level performance in localizing vertebral centers and outperform the Harris corner detector and Hough forest-based methods for corner localization. The proposed network has also shown its capability for detecting vertebral boundaries and produced visually better results than the dense classification network-based boundary detectors. Segmentation of the vertebral body is a crucial part of the proposed framework. A new shapeaware loss function has been proposed for training a segmentation network to encourage prediction of vertebra-like structures. The segmentation performance improved significantly, however, the pixel-wise nature of proposed loss function was not able to constrain the predictions adequately. To solve the problem a novel neural network was proposed which predicts vertebral shapes and trains on a loss function defined in the shape space. The proposed shape predictor network was capable of learning better topological information about the vertebra than the shape-aware segmentation network. The methods proposed in this dissertation have been trained and tested on a challenging dataset of X-ray images collected from medical emergency rooms. The proposed, first-of-its-kind, fully automatic framework produces state-of-the-art results both quantitatively and qualitatively