Volumetric texture analysis based on three-dimensional Gaussian Markov random fields for COPD detection

This paper proposes a 3D GMRF-based descriptor for volumetric texture image classification. In our proposed method, the estimated parameters of the GMRF model in volumetric texture images are employed as texture features in addition to the mean of a processed image region. The descriptor of the volumetric texture is then constructed by computing the histograms of each feature element to characterize the local texture. The evaluation of this descriptor achieves a high classification accuracy on a 3D synthetic texture database. Our method is then applied on a clinical dataset to exploit its discriminatory power, achieving a high classification accuracy in COPD detection. To demonstrate the performance of the descriptor, a comparison is carried out against a 2D GMRF-based method using the same dataset, variables, and settings. The descriptor outperforms the 2D GMRF-based method by a significant margin