<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Automatic suspected lesion extraction is an important application in computer-aided diagnosis (CAD). In this paper, we propose a method to automatically extract the suspected parotid regions for clinical evaluation in head and neck CT images. The suspected lesion tissues in low contrast tissue regions can be localized with feature-based segmentation (FBS) based on local texture features, and can be delineated with accuracy by modified active contour models (ACM). At first, stationary wavelet transform (SWT) is introduced. The derived wavelet coefficients are applied to derive the local features for FBS, and to generate enhanced energy maps for ACM computation. Geometric shape features (GSFs) are proposed to analyze each soft tissue region segmented by FBS; the regions with higher similarity GSFs with the lesions are extracted and the information is also applied as the initial conditions for fine delineation computation. Consequently, the suspected lesions can be automatically localized and accurately delineated for aiding clinical diagnosis. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing with the results outlined by clinical experts. The experiments on 20 pathological CT data sets show that the true-positive (TP) rate on recognizing parotid lesions is about 94%, and the dimension accuracy of delineation results can also approach over 93%.</p></abstract>

Automatic suspected lesion extraction is an important application in computer-aided diagnosis (CAD). In this paper, we propose a method to automatically extract the suspected parotid regions for clinical evaluation in head and neck CT images. The suspected lesion tissues in low contrast tissue regions can be localized with feature-based segmentation (FBS) based on local texture features, and can be delineated with accuracy by modified active contour models (ACM). At first, stationary wavelet transform (SWT) is introduced. The derived wavelet coefficients are applied to derive the local features for FBS, and to generate enhanced energy maps for ACM computation. Geometric shape features (GSFs) are proposed to analyze each soft tissue region segmented by FBS; the regions with higher similarity GSFs with the lesions are extracted and the information is also applied as the initial conditions for fine delineation computation. Consequently, the suspected lesions can be automatically localized and accurately delineated for aiding clinical diagnosis. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing with the results outlined by clinical experts. The experiments on 20 pathological CT data sets show that the true-positive (TP) rate on recognizing parotid lesions is about 94%, and the dimension accuracy of delineation results can also approach over 93%.

A Method for Extracting Suspected Parotid Lesions in CT Images using Feature-based Segmentation and Active Contours based on Stationary Wavelet Transform

Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, No.1001, Ta Hsueh Rd. , Hsinchu City 300, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Industrial Technology Research Institue, Center of Measurement and Standard, No.321, Sec. 2, Kuangfu Rd., Hsinchu City 300, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Measurement Science Review

Automatic suspected lesion extraction is an important application in computer-aided diagnosis (CAD). In this paper, we propose a method to automatically...

A Method for Extracting Suspected Parotid Lesions in CT Images using Feature-based Segmentation and Active Contours based on Stationary Wavelet Transform

Published Online: Nov 02, 2013

Page range: 237 - 247

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/msr-2013-0036

Keywords
Parotid, CT image, stationary wavelet transform, image segmentation, active contour

This content is open access.

A Method for Extracting Suspected Parotid Lesions in CT Images using Feature-based Segmentation and Active Contours based on Stationary Wavelet Transform

Published Online: Nov 02, 2013

Page range: 237 - 247

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/msr-2013-0036

KeywordsParotid, CT image, stationary wavelet transform, image segmentation, active contour

This content is open access.

Keywords
Parotid, CT image, stationary wavelet transform, image segmentation, active contour