Recent Advances in Machine Learning Applied to Ultrasound Imaging

Machine learning (ML) methods are pervading an increasing number of fields of application because of their capacity to effectively solve a wide variety of challenging problems. The employment of ML techniques in ultrasound imaging applications started several years ago but the scientific interest in this issue has increased exponentially in the last few years. The present work reviews the most recent (2019 onwards) implementations of machine learning techniques for two of the most popular ultrasound imaging fields, medical diagnostics and non-destructive evaluation. The former, which covers the major part of the review, was analyzed by classifying studies according to the human organ investigated and the methodology (e.g., detection, segmentation, and/or classification) adopted, while for the latter, some solutions to the detection/classification of material defects or particular patterns are reported. Finally, the main merits of machine learning that emerged from the study analysis are summarized and discussed. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Computer-Aided Detection of COVID-19 from CT Images Based on Gaussian Mixture Model and Kernel Support Vector Machines Classifier

COVID-19 is a virus that has been declared an epidemic by the world health organization and causes more than 2 million deaths in the world. To achieve this, computer-aided automatic diagnosis systems are created on medical images. In this study, an image processing and machine learning-based method is proposed that enables segmenting of CT images taken from COVID-19 patients and automatic detection of the virus through the segmented images. The main purpose of the study is to automatically diagnose the COVID-19 virus. The study consists of three basic steps: preprocessing, segmentation and classification. Image resizing, image sharpening, noise removal, contrast stretching processes are included in the preprocessing phase and segmentation of images with Expectation–Maximization-based Gaussian Mixture Model in the segmentation phase. In the classification stage, COVID-19 is classified as positive and negative by using kNN, decision tree, and two different ensemble methods together with the kernel support vector machines method. In the study, two different CT datasets that are open to the public and a mixed dataset created by combining these datasets were used. The best accuracy values for Dataset-1, Dataset-2 and Mixed Dataset are 98.5%, 86.3%, 94.5%, respectively. The achieved results prove that the proposed approach advances state-of-the-art performance. Within the scope of the study, a GUI that can automatically detect COVID-19 has been created. © 2021, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.21.317, NKUBAP.06This work was supported by Research Fund of the Tekirdag Nam?k Kemal University. Project Number: NKUBAP.06.GA.21.317This work was supported by Research Fund of the Tekirdag Namık Kemal University. Project Number: NKUBAP.06.GA.21.31

Human treelike tubular structure segmentation: A comprehensive review and future perspectives

Various structures in human physiology follow a treelike morphology, which often expresses complexity at very fine scales. Examples of such structures are intrathoracic airways, retinal blood vessels, and hepatic blood vessels. Large collections of 2D and 3D images have been made available by medical imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and ultrasound in which the spatial arrangement can be observed. Segmentation of these structures in medical imaging is of great importance since the analysis of the structure provides insights into disease diagnosis, treatment planning, and prognosis. Manually labelling extensive data by radiologists is often time-consuming and error-prone. As a result, automated or semi-automated computational models have become a popular research field of medical imaging in the past two decades, and many have been developed to date. In this survey, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of currently publicly available datasets, segmentation algorithms, and evaluation metrics. In addition, current challenges and future research directions are discussed

INTEGRATING MACHINE LEARNING WITH LEVEL SET METHOD FOR MEDICAL IMAGE SEGMENTATION

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Texture Analysis of Diffraction Enhanced Synchrotron Images of Trabecular Bone at the Wrist

The purpose of this study is to determine the correlation between texture features of Di raction Enhanced Imaging (DEI) images and trabecular properties of human wrist bone in the assessment of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disorder that is characterized by reduced bone mass and a deterioration of bone structure which results in an increased fracture risk. Since the disease is preventable, diagnostic techniques are of major importance. Bone micro-architecture and Bone mineral density (BMD) are two main factors related to osteoporotic fractures. Trabecular properties like bone volume (BV), trabecular number (Tb.N), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), bone surface (BS), and other properties of bone, characterizes the bone architecture. Currently, however, BMD is the only measurement carried out to assess osteoporosis. Researchers suggest that bone micro-architecture and texture analysis of bone images along with BMD can provide more accuracy in the assessment. We have applied texture analysis on DEI images and extracted texture features. In our study, we used fractal analysis, gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), texture feature coding method (TFCM), and local binary patterns (LBP) as texture analysis methods to extract texture features. 3D Micro-CT trabecular properties were extracted using SkyScanTM CTAN software. Then, we determined the correlation between texture features and trabecular properties. GLCM energy fea- ture of DEI images explained more than 39% of variance in bone surface by volume ratio (BS/BV), 38% of variance in percent bone volume (BV/TV), and 37% of variance in trabecular number (Tb.N). TFCM homogeneity feature of DEI images explained more than 42% of variance in bone surface (BS) parameter. LBP operator - LBP 11 of DEI images explained more than 34% of vari- ance in bone surface (BS) and 30% of variance in bone surface density (BS/TV). Fractal dimension parameter of DEI images explained more than 47% of variance in bone surface (BS) and 32% of variance in bone volume (BV). This study will facilitate in the quanti cation of osteoporosis beyond conventional BMD

The Role of Radiomics and AI Technologies in the Segmentation, Detection, and Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary hepatic neoplasm. Thanks to recent advances in computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), there is potential to improve detection, segmentation, discrimination from HCC mimics, and monitoring of therapeutic response. Radiomics, artificial intelligence (AI), and derived tools have already been applied in other areas of diagnostic imaging with promising results. In this review, we briefly discuss the current clinical applications of radiomics and AI in the detection, segmentation, and management of HCC. Moreover, we investigate their potential to reach a more accurate diagnosis of HCC and to guide proper treatment planning

Image Retrieval Method Combining Bayes and SVM Classifier Based on Relevance Feedback with Application to Small-scale Datasets

A vast amount of images has been generated due to the diversity and digitalization of devices for image acquisition. However, the gap between low-level visual features and high-level semantic representations has been a major concern that hinders retrieval accuracy. A retrieval method based on the transfer learning model and the relevance feedback technique was formulated in this study to optimize the dynamic trade-off between the structural complexity and retrieval performance of the small- and medium-scale content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system. First, the pretrained deep learning model was fine-tuned to extract features from target datasets. Then, the target dataset was clustered into the relative and irrelative image library by exploring the Bayes classifier. Next, the support vector machine (SVM) classifier was used to retrieve similar images in the relative library. Finally, the relevance feedback technique was employed to update the parameters of both classifiers iteratively until the request for the retrieval was met. Results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves 95.87% in classification index F1 - Score, which surpasses that of the suboptimal approach DCNN-BSVM by 6.76%. The performance of the proposed method is superior to that of other approaches considering retrieval criteria as average precision, average recall, and mean average precision. The study indicates that the Bayes + SVM combined classifier accomplishes the optimal quantities more efficiently than only either Bayes or SVM classifier under the transfer learning framework. Transfer learning skillfully excels training from scratch considering the feature extraction modes. This study provides a certain reference for other insights on applications of small- and medium-scale CBIR systems with inadequate samples

Clustering and Shifting of Regional Appearance for Deformable Model Segmentation

Automated medical image segmentation is a challenging task that benefits from the use of effective image appearance models. An appearance model describes the grey-level intensity information relative to the object being segmented. Previous models that compare the target against a single template image or that assume a very small-scale correspondence fail to capture the variability seen in the target cases. In this dissertation I present novel appearance models to address these deficiencies, and I show their efficacy in segmentation via deformable models. The models developed here use clustering and shifting of the object-relative appearance to capture the true variability in appearance. They all learn their parameters from training sets of previously-segmented images. The first model uses clustering on cross-boundary intensity profiles in the training set to determine profile types, and then it builds a template of optimal types that reflects the various edge characteristics seen around the boundary. The second model uses clustering on local regional image descriptors to determine large-scale regions relative to the boundary. The method then partitions the object boundary according to region type and captures the intensity variability per region type. The third and fourth models allow shifting of the image model on the boundary to reflect knowledge of the variable regional conformations seen in training. I evaluate the appearance models by considering their efficacy in segmentation of the kidney, bladder, and prostate in abdominal and male pelvis CT. I compare the automatically generated segmentations using these models against expert manual segmentations of the target cases and against automatically generated segmentations using previous models

Quantitative Analysis of Ultrasound Images of the Preterm Brain

In this PhD new algorithms are proposed to better understand and diagnose white matter damage in the preterm Brain. Since Ultrasound imaging is the most suited modality for the inspection of brain pathologies in very low birth weight infants we propose multiple techniques to assist in what is called Computer-Aided Diagnosis. As a main result we are able to increase the qualitative diagnosis from a 70% detectability to a 98% quantitative detectability

Pattern Recognition

Pattern recognition is a very wide research field. It involves factors as diverse as sensors, feature extraction, pattern classification, decision fusion, applications and others. The signals processed are commonly one, two or three dimensional, the processing is done in real- time or takes hours and days, some systems look for one narrow object class, others search huge databases for entries with at least a small amount of similarity. No single person can claim expertise across the whole field, which develops rapidly, updates its paradigms and comprehends several philosophical approaches. This book reflects this diversity by presenting a selection of recent developments within the area of pattern recognition and related fields. It covers theoretical advances in classification and feature extraction as well as application-oriented works. Authors of these 25 works present and advocate recent achievements of their research related to the field of pattern recognition