Image processing methods for computer-aided interpretation of microscopic images

Ankara : The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the Graduate School of Engineering and Science of Bilkent University, 2012.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2012.Includes bibliographical refences.Image processing algorithms for automated analysis of microscopic images have become increasingly popular in the last decade with the remarkable growth in computational power. The advent of high-throughput scanning devices allows for computer-assisted evaluation of microscopic images, resulting in a quick and unbiased image interpretation that will facilitate the clinical decision-making process. In this thesis, new methods are proposed to provide solution to two image analysis problems in biology and histopathology. The first problem is the classification of human carcinoma cell line images. Cancer cell lines are widely used for research purposes in laboratories all over the world. In molecular biology studies, researchers deal with a large number of specimens whose identity have to be checked at various points in time. A novel computerized method is presented for cancer cell line image classification. Microscopic images containing irregular carcinoma cell patterns are represented by subwindows which correspond to foreground pixels. For each subwindow, a covariance descriptor utilizing the dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) coefficients as pixel features is computed. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier with radial basis function (RBF) kernel is employed for final classification. For 14 different classes, we achieve an overall accuracy of 98%, which outperforms the classical covariance based methods. Histopathological image analysis problem is related to the grading of follicular lymphoma (FL) disease. FL is one of the commonly encountered cancer types in the lymph system. FL grading is based on histological examination of hematoxilin and eosin (H&E) stained tissue sections by pathologists who make clinical decisions by manually counting the malignant centroblast (CB) cells. This grading method is subject to substantial inter- and intra-reader variability and sampling bias. A computer-assisted method is presented for detection of CB cells in H&Estained FL tissue samples. The proposed algorithm takes advantage of the scalespace representation of FL images to detect blob-like cell regions which reside in the scale-space extrema of the difference-of-Gaussian images. Multi-stage false positive elimination strategy is employed with some statistical region properties and textural features such as gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), gray-level run-length matrix (GLRLM) and Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). The algorithm is evaluated on 30 images and 90% CB detection accuracy is obtained, which outperforms the average accuracy of expert hematopathologists.Keskin, Musa FurkanM.S

Método computacional para segmentação não supervisionada de imagens histológicas de linfoma

Histological image analysis represents a major evolutionary step in modern medicine. Associated with this step, computational methods are being widely developed to help specialists during the analysis of these images to determine diagnostics, prognostics and appropriate treatments in accordance with the condition of the patient. However, when it is performed by specialists, this task becomes time-consuming and susceptible to inter- and intra-pathologist variability. To improve this traditional practice for diagnostics of Mantle Cell Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, this study proposes a method for the unsupervised segmentation of nuclear components in indicative cells of such neoplasias using histological images stained with Hematoxylin-Eosin. The proposed method was divided into preprocessing, segmentation and post processing. In the preprocessing step, the techniques used in histogram equalization and Gaussian filter were applied to the channels from RGB color model. In the segmentation, a thresholding technique was applied combining the methods of fuzzy 3-partition entropy and genetic algorithm. Finally, for the improvement of the segmentation results, morphological operations and the valley-emphasis technique were used. For evaluating the developed method, histological images of lymphoma with magnification 20x were selected and manually segmented by a specialist. Those reference images (gold standard) allowed the extraction of quantitative measures in order to compare this method with different techniques proposed in the literature. Furthermore, a qualitative evaluation was conducted leading to relevant and improved results over those from compared studies. Its application was also analysed considering the steps of feature extraction and classification of the lesions, obtaining results of accuracy close to 100%FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas GeraisCAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorMestre em Ciência da ComputaçãoA análise de imagens histológicas representa uma das maiores evoluções da medicina moderna. Aliados a essa evolução, métodos computacionais vêm sendo amplamente desenvolvidos para auxiliar especialistas na análise dessas imagens para determinar diagnósticos, prognósticos e tratamentos adequados à condição do paciente. Porém, ao ser realizada por especialistas, essa tarefa torna-se dispendiosa e suscetível a variabilidades inter e intrapatologistas. Para aperfeiçoar tal prática tradicional para diagnósticos de Linfoma de Células do Manto, Linfoma Folicular e Leucemia Linfóide Crônica, este trabalho propõe um método para a segmentação não supervisionada dos componentes nucleares de células indicativas de tais neoplasias utilizando imagens histológicas coradas com Hematoxilina-Eosina. O método proposto foi dividido nas etapas de pré-processamento, segmentação e pós-processamento. Na etapa de pré-processamento, as técnicas de equalização do histograma e filtro gaussiano foram aplicadas sobre os canais componentes do modelo de cores RGB. Na segmentação, foi aplicada uma técnica de limiarização resultante da combinação entre os métodos fuzzy 3-partition entropy e algoritmo genético. Por fim, para aperfeiçoamento dos resultados da segmentação, foram utilizadas operações morfológicas e a técnica valley-emphasis. Para avaliar o método desenvolvido, imagens histológicas de linfoma com magnificação 20x foram selecionadas e segmentadas manualmente por um especialista. Essas imagens de referência (padrão-ouro) permitiram a extração de medidas quantitativas para a comparação entre este método e diferentes técnicas propostas na literatura. Além disso, uma avaliação qualitativa foi realizada levando a resultados relevantes e superiores aos trabalhos comparados. Também foi analisada a sua aplicação sobre as etapas de extração de características e classificação das diferentes lesões consideradas, obtendo resultados de acurácia próximos a 100%