Autoencoding the Retrieval Relevance of Medical Images

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) of medical images is a crucial task that can contribute to a more reliable diagnosis if applied to big data. Recent advances in feature extraction and classification have enormously improved CBIR results for digital images. However, considering the increasing accessibility of big data in medical imaging, we are still in need of reducing both memory requirements and computational expenses of image retrieval systems. This work proposes to exclude the features of image blocks that exhibit a low encoding error when learned by a $n/p/n$ autoencoder ($p\!<\!n$). We examine the histogram of autoendcoding errors of image blocks for each image class to facilitate the decision which image regions, or roughly what percentage of an image perhaps, shall be declared relevant for the retrieval task. This leads to reduction of feature dimensionality and speeds up the retrieval process. To validate the proposed scheme, we employ local binary patterns (LBP) and support vector machines (SVM) which are both well-established approaches in CBIR research community. As well, we use IRMA dataset with 14,410 x-ray images as test data. The results show that the dimensionality of annotated feature vectors can be reduced by up to 50% resulting in speedups greater than 27% at expense of less than 1% decrease in the accuracy of retrieval when validating the precision and recall of the top 20 hits.Comment: To appear in proceedings of The 5th International Conference on Image Processing Theory, Tools and Applications (IPTA'15), Nov 10-13, 2015, Orleans, Franc

Medical Image Classification via SVM using LBP Features from Saliency-Based Folded Data

Good results on image classification and retrieval using support vector machines (SVM) with local binary patterns (LBPs) as features have been extensively reported in the literature where an entire image is retrieved or classified. In contrast, in medical imaging, not all parts of the image may be equally significant or relevant to the image retrieval application at hand. For instance, in lung x-ray image, the lung region may contain a tumour, hence being highly significant whereas the surrounding area does not contain significant information from medical diagnosis perspective. In this paper, we propose to detect salient regions of images during training and fold the data to reduce the effect of irrelevant regions. As a result, smaller image areas will be used for LBP features calculation and consequently classification by SVM. We use IRMA 2009 dataset with 14,410 x-ray images to verify the performance of the proposed approach. The results demonstrate the benefits of saliency-based folding approach that delivers comparable classification accuracies with state-of-the-art but exhibits lower computational cost and storage requirements, factors highly important for big data analytics.Comment: To appear in proceedings of The 14th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (IEEE ICMLA 2015), Miami, Florida, USA, 201

Identification of macrophage migration inhibitory factor and human neutrophil peptides 1–3 as potential biomarkers for gastric cancer

Background: Proteomic methods have the potential to meet the urgent need for better cancer biomarkers. We have used a range of proteomic analyses of serum and tissue from gastric cancer patients and relevant controls to discover biomarkers for gastric cancer. Methods: Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI) and antibody arrays were used to compare protein expression in 21 pairs of gastric cancer tissue and adjacent normal mucosa and serum from 51 gastric cancer patients and 29 patients with benign gastric diseases. Expression differences were confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Tissue analysis shows human neutrophil peptides 1–3 (HNPs 1–3) elevated 10-fold (P=0.001) in gastric cancer relative to adjacent normal mucosa. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) was increased five-fold (P=1.84 × 10−7) in the serum of gastric cancer patients relative to individuals with benign gastric disease. The large increase in MIF concentration in serum gives an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.85. Conclusions: Proteomic analyses of serum and tissue indicate that HNPs 1–3 and MIF have potential as biomarkers for gastric cancer. In particular MIF may be useful, either alone or in combination with other markers, for diagnosing and monitoring gastric cancer

Temozolomide in combination with cisplatin in patients with metastatic melanoma: a phase II trial.

The present study was designed to assess the efficacy and safety of combination therapy with temozolomide plus cisplatin in patients with metastatic melanoma. Thirty patients with metastatic melanoma were enrolled. Treatment consisted of intravenous cisplatin (75 mg/m(2)) on day 1 and oral temozolomide (200 mg/m(2)) on days 1 to 5, every 4 weeks. Nine patients (30.0%) achieved an objective response, including two complete (6.7%) and seven partial (23.3%) responses. The median response duration was 161 days. The median progression-free and overall survival times were 72 and 120 days, respectively. Myelosuppression and emesis were the primary toxicities. In conclusion, temozolomide combined with cisplatin is an active and safe first-line chemotherapy regimen with acceptable and easily manageable toxicities in patients with metastatic melanoma

Efficacy of coeliac plexus and splanchnic nerve blockades in body and tail located pancreatic cancer pain

Palliative treatment, pain therapy and quality of life (QOL) are very important in pancreatic cancer patients. We evaluated the pain relieving efficacy, side effects and effects on QOL of neurolytic coeliac plexus blockade (NCPB) and splanchnic nerves neurolytic blockade (SNB) in body and tail located pancreatic cancer

CA242 and total antioxidant levels in comparison to CEA and CA 19-9 in colorectal cancer

We investigated the levels of CEA, CA 242,CA 19-9 and the total antioxidant status in 45 patients with colorectal cancer. Blood samples were obtained from 24 patients in the early postoperative phase, 16 patients in the late postoperative phase and 5 patients with recurrent disease. Statistical significances were calculated in each group by the Mann-Whitney U test. No meaningful difference was observed between the control and early or late postoperative groups. However, serum CEA levels were significantly different between the control and recurrent groups (p < 0.001). A meaningful difference was also observed between the recurrent and early (p < 0.001) and late postoperative (p = 0.015) groups, respectively. Our study shows that CEA is the only tumor marker that can be used in monitoring colorectal cancer patients

Diagnostic value of the PSA subfractions, acid phosphatase and creatine kinase isoenzymes in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the second frequent cause of cancer among men. Prostate Specific Antigen ( PSA) is used widely for the diagnosis and during the follow-up of the patients as well as to distinguish prostatic hyperplasia from prostate cancer. However, PSA values above the reference range may be found also in nonmalignant conditions. Conversely, not all prostate cancers give rise to an elevated serum PSA concentration, Therefore, new and reliable parameters have been investigated. The ratio of free / total PSA has been found to distinguish between prostatic hyperplasia and carcinoma. It has been suggested that creatine kinase (CK) and acid phosphatase (ACP) isoenzymes may show significant variation in prostate cancer. In this study, free and total PSA levels and CK and ACP isoenzyme levels were investigated in patients with prostate cancer and prostatic hyperplasia, A significant difference between the ACP levels was found. Total PSA values were higher in cancer patients. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for prostatic cancer was clearly increased by considering the free / total PSA ratio. A higher specificitiy was achieved by the combination of the three parameters

Evaluation of serum tumor markers in gastrointestinal tract tumors

Serum CA 195 and CA 242 levels of patients with malignant gastrointestinal tract (n=60) were determined in parallel with CEA and CA 19.9. All markers showed low to moderate sensitivity for the malignant state. In terms of specificity and the predictive values CEA was observed to attain the best performance. Among all tests the CEA-CA 195 and CA 195-CA 242 combinations displayed the highest sensitivities. Our results indicate that complementation of CEA with CA 195 can significantly increase the sensitivity in the serodiagnosis of gastrointestinal system cancers. Combination of positive information is likely to lead to a more accurate diagnosis and to a more efficient therapeutic response

Combination chemotherapy with docetaxel and irinotecan in metastatic malignant melanoma.

Aim: The aim of the current trial was to assess the efficacy and toxicity of 3-weekly intravenous docetaxel and irinotecan in the treatment of patients with metastatic malignant melanoma