Feature selection for automatic CT-based prostate segmentation

Automatic and reliable prostate segmentation is an essential prerequisite for assisting the diagnosis and treatment, such as guiding biopsy procedure and radiation therapy. Notwithstanding, automatic segmentation is challenging due to the lack of clear prostate boundaries owing to similar appearance of prostate and surrounding tissues and the wide variation in size and shape among different patients. Therefore, this paper proposes an automatic method for prostate segmentation on 3D MRI scans using a content-sensitive superpixels technique, deep convolutional neural networks with residual connections (ResCNN), and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The proposed method has been evaluated on the Prostate 3T and PROMISE12 databases, presenting a Dice similarity coefficient of 86.68 %, Jaccard index of 76.58%, relative volume difference of 3.92%, volumetric similarity of 96.69 %, sensitivity of 88.36 %, specificity of 93.43%, accuracy of 91.97% and an area under ROC curve of 90.90 %. Experimental results demonstrate the high performance-potential of the proposed method comparable to those previously published.

Multiparametric ultrasound (mpUS) is being investigated as an alternative to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for detection of prostate cancer (PC). Automated prostate segmentation facilitates workflows, and zonal segmentation can aid in PC diagnosis, accounting for differences in imaging characteristics and tumor incidence. Our aim was to develop a deep learning algorithm that can automatically segment the prostate and its zones on three-dimensional (3D) contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and conventional brightness-mode (B-mode) images (NCT04605276). A total of 259 3D mpUS images were collected from men with suspicion for PC in a prospective multicenter trial to develop a computer-aided diagnosis system for PC. Manual segmentation was performed using a custom tool, and an algorithm was developed using a convolutional neural network based on the U-Net architecture. Cross-validation of the automated segmentation algorithm revealed Dice similarity coefficients (DSCs) of 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.90-0.91) for CEUS and 0.94 (95% CI 0.93-0.94) for B-mode ultrasound for 3D prostate segmentation. Zonal segmentation was less accurate, with DSCs of 0.83 (95% CI 0.82-0.84) for CEUS and 0.86 (95% CI 0.85-0.87) for B-mode ultrasound. There was high agreement for prostate volume between automatic segmentation on CEUS and physician-estimated volumes on MRI (R2=0.96). Qualitative assessment of prostate segmentation using a scale from 1 to 5 revealed a median grade of 5 (interquartile range [IQR] 4-5) for manual segmentation and 4 (IQR 4-5) for automated segmentation (p=0.10). Our deep learning algorithm demonstrated strong performance for automatic prostate and zonal segmentation from 3D CEUS and B-mode ultrasound images. We developed a computer tool to automatically identify the prostate in three-dimensional ultrasound images. The results show high accuracy and closely match manual assessments by urologists. This tool has potential for use in a computer-aided diagnostic system for prostate cancer.

Attention-guided multi-scale learning network for automatic prostate and tumor segmentation on MRI

Purpose: Medical image segmentation models are essential for efficiently diagnosing prostate cancer. Current models for segmentation of micro ultrasound images do not utilize foundation models, or geometric and spatial data from the ultrasound image. We aim to leverage the Segment Anything Model (SAM) as a pretrained backbone to create a fully automatic prostate segmentation model and investigate prompting with positonal information such as the slice frame number and previous segmentations. Methods: The Segment Anything Model (SAM) was fine-tuned on Micro-Ultrasound images1 and adapted for the context of clinical prostate segmentation. We explored different fine-tuning methods and prompting combinations fit for automatic segmentation. Dice coefficient (DSC) and Hausdorff 95% distance (HD95) were used as evaluation metrics to compare our model against past models. Results: In comparison to the state of the art models, SliceTrack-SAM improved the mean Dice coefficient from the MicroSegNet2 model (93.1) to 94.3, and reduced the Hausdorff distance from the nnU-Net model (1.09 mm) to 0.81 mm. Conclusion: In summary, using a fully-finetuned SAM, improves prostate segmentation accuracy. In addition, prompting with geometric and spatial data derived from ultrasound images shows potential to enhance segmentation accuracy, particularly on difficult datasets.

Many similarity measures (SMs) were proposed to measure the similarity between multimodal remote sensing (RS) images. Each SM is efficient to a different degree in different registration cases (we consider visible-to-infrared, visible-to-radar, visible-to-digital elevation model (DEM), and radar-to-DEM ones), but no SM was shown to outperform all other SMs in all cases. In this article, we investigate the possibility of deriving a more powerful SM by combining two or more existing SMs. This combined SM relies on a binary linear support vector machine (SVM) classifier trained using real RS images. In the general registration case, we order SMs according to their impact on the combined SM performance. The three most important SMs include two structural SMs based on modality independent neighborhood descriptor (MIND) and scale-invariant feature transform-octave (SIFT-OCT) descriptors and one area-based logarithmic likelihood ratio (logLR) SM: the former ones are more robust to structural changes of image intensity between registered modes, the latter one is to image noise. Importantly, we demonstrate that a single combined SM can be applied in the general case as well as in each particular considered registration case. As compared to existing multimodal SMs, the proposed combined SM [based on five existing SMs, namely, MIND, logLR, SIFT-OCT, phase correlation (PC), histogram of orientated phase congruency (HOPC)] increases the area under the curve (AUC) by from 1% to 21%. From a practical point of view, we demonstrate that complex multimodal image pairs can be successfully registered with the proposed combined SM, while existing single SMs fail to detect enough correspondences for registration. Our results demonstrate that MIND, SIFT, and logLR SMs capture essential aspects of the similarity between RS modes, and their properties are complementary for designing a new more efficient multimodal SM.

Automatic prostate segmentation from MR images is an important task in various clinical applications such as prostate cancer staging and MR-guided radiotherapy planning. However, the large appearance and shape variations of the prostate in MR images make the segmentation problem difficult to solve. Traditional Active Shape/Appearance Model (ASM/AAM) has limited accuracy on this problem, since its basic assumption, i.e., both shape and appearance of the targeted organ follow Gaussian distributions, is invalid in prostate MR images. To this end, the authors propose a sparse dictionary learning method to model the image appearance in a nonparametric fashion and further integrate the appearance model into a deformable segmentation framework for prostate MR segmentation. To drive the deformable model for prostate segmentation, the authors propose nonparametric appearance and shape models. The nonparametric appearance model is based on a novel dictionary learning method, namely distributed discriminative dictionary (DDD) learning, which is able to capture fine distinctions in image appearance. To increase the differential power of traditional dictionary-based classification methods, the authors' DDD learning approach takes three strategies. First, two dictionaries for prostate and nonprostate tissues are built, respectively, using the discriminative features obtained from minimum redundancy maximum relevance feature selection. Second, linear discriminant analysis is employed as a linear classifier to boost the optimal separation between prostate and nonprostate tissues, based on the representation residuals from sparse representation. Third, to enhance the robustness of the authors' classification method, multiple local dictionaries are learned for local regions along the prostate boundary (each with small appearance variations), instead of learning one global classifier for the entire prostate. These discriminative dictionaries are located on different patches of the prostate surface and trained to adaptively capture the appearance in different prostate zones, thus achieving better local tissue differentiation. For each local region, multiple classifiers are trained based on the randomly selected samples and finally assembled by a specific fusion method. In addition to this nonparametric appearance model, a prostate shape model is learned from the shape statistics using a novel approach, sparse shape composition, which can model nonGaussian distributions of shape variation and regularize the 3D mesh deformation by constraining it within the observed shape subspace. The proposed method has been evaluated on two datasets consisting of T2-weighted MR prostate images. For the first (internal) dataset, the classification effectiveness of the authors' improved dictionary learning has been validated by comparing it with three other variants of traditional dictionary learning methods. The experimental results show that the authors' method yields a Dice Ratio of 89.1% compared to the manual segmentation, which is more accurate than the three state-of-the-art MR prostate segmentation methods under comparison. For the second dataset, the MICCAI 2012 challenge dataset, the authors' proposed method yields a Dice Ratio of 87.4%, which also achieves better segmentation accuracy than other methods under comparison. A new magnetic resonance image prostate segmentation method is proposed based on the combination of deformable model and dictionary learning methods, which achieves more accurate segmentation performance on prostate T2 MR images.

Colon cancer is cancer that is present on the inner side of colon walls or the rectum walls in the large intestine. Most of these types of cancer begin as abnormal growth of tissue called as polyp. Colonography uses low dose radiation Computed tomography (CT) scanning to obtain an interior view of the colon making use of special x-ray machine to view the large intestine for cancer and abnormal growths known as polyps. Radiologists examine these images to find polyp like structure using computer tools. As CT Colonography image contain noise such as lungs, small intestine, instruments during image capturing; segmenting colon from noise is the key task. Polyp occurrence can be detected mainly using shape feature; eliminating shapes similar to polyp is challenging. Hence, to tackle above issues, Image processing techniques are used by applying deep learning algorithm - Convolution Neural Network (CNN) and the results are compared with classical machine learning algorithm. In proposed method, each image is pre-processed to filter air filled dark region that includes colon, lungs etc. Next, each pre-processed CT Image separated into fixed number of blocks. Using pre-trained CNN, each block of ROI is classified as Type 1 (Usually Ascending and descending colon), Type 2 (Usually Traversal and sigmoidal colon) and Type3 (Noise such as lungs, instruments) to segment colon blocks by eliminating noise. Classified Blocks is further diagnosed for polyp like structure using pre-trained CNN by classifying each colon block as normal or abnormal. The experiment is setup with classical machine learning algorithms - Random Forest (RF) and k-nearest neighbor (KNN) by extracting texture feature - Local binary pattern (LBP) and shape feature - Histogram oriented gradient (HOG) for comparison. The experiment results showed the accuracy of proposed method for colon segmentation using CNN (87%) outperforms RF (85%) and KNN (83%). In, addition, the polyp detection accuracy of CNN (88%) is better than Random forest (85%) and KNN (80%). Hence, in the proposed method, there is significant accuracy improvement using deep learning algorithm compared to classical machine learning algorithms. It also provide baseline for automated colon cancer diagnosis using Deep learning algorithms for further research.

A non-rigid registration method is presented for the alignment of pre-procedural magnetic resonance (MR) images with delineated suspicious regions to intra-procedural 3D transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images in TRUS-guided prostate biopsy. In the first step, 3D MR and TRUS images are aligned rigidly using six pairs of manually identified approximate matching points on the boundary of the prostate. Then, two image volumes are non-rigidly registered using a finite element method (FEM)-based linear elastic deformation model. A vector of observation prediction errors at some points of interest within the prostate volume is computed using an intensity-based similarity metric called the modality independent neighborhood descriptor (MIND). The error vector is employed in a classical state estimation framework to estimate prostate deformation between MR and TRUS images. The points of interests are identified using speeded-up robust features (SURF) that are scale and rotation-invariant descriptors in MR images. The proposed registration method on 10 sets of prostate MR and TRUS images yielded a target registration error of 1.99±0.83 mm, and 1.97±0.87 mm in the peripheral zone (PZ) and whole gland (WG), respectively, using 68 manually-identified fiducial points. The Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) was 87.9±2.9, 82.3±4.8, 93.0±1.7, and 84.2±6.2 percent for the WG, apex, mid-gland and base of the prostate, respectively. Moreover, the mean absolute distances (MAD) between the WG surfaces in the TRUS and registered MR images was 1.6±0.3 mm. Registration results indicate effectiveness of the proposed method in improving the targeting accuracy in the TRUS-guided prostate biopsy.

A new feature extraction framework based on wavelets for breast cancer diagnosis

Analyzing radiation absorption difference of dental substance by using Dual CT

In recent years, the use of computerized tomography (CT) to characterize two-phase fluid flow through porous media has become increasingly popular. This paper describes a different application of CT: it use as a core analysis tool. The advantages and disadvantages of the different technological generations of commercial medical CT scanners available as core analysis instruments are also discussed. Additionally, methods are presented for improving images and reducing CT-number errors inherent in the scanning of high-density rock samples on instruments whose software was designed for the scanning of the low-density human patients.

Indonesian citizens who use motorized vehicles are increasing every year. Every motorcyclist in Indonesia must wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle. Even though there are rules that require motorbike riders to wear helmets, there are still many motorists who disobey the rules. To overcome this, police officers have carried out various operations (such as traffic operation, warning, etc.). This is not effective because of the number of police officers available, and the probability of police officers make a mistake when detecting violations that might be caused due to fatigue. This study asks the system to detect motorcyclists who do not wear helmets through a surveillance camera. Referring to this reason, the Circular Hough Transform (CHT), Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG), and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) are used. Testing was done by using images taken from surveillance cameras divided into 200 training data and 40 testing data obtained an accuracy rate of 82.5%.

ObjectivesBody composition assessment using CT images at the L3-level is increasingly applied in cancer research and has been shown to be strongly associated with long-term survival. Robust high-throughput automated segmentation is key to assess large patient cohorts and to support implementation of body composition analysis into routine clinical practice. We trained and externally validated a deep learning neural network (DLNN) to automatically segment L3-CT images.MethodsExpert-drawn segmentations of visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue (VAT/SAT) and skeletal muscle (SM) of L3-CT-images of 3187 patients undergoing abdominal surgery were used to train a DLNN. The external validation cohort was comprised of 2535 patients with abdominal cancer. DLNN performance was evaluated with (geometric) dice similarity (DS) and Lin’s concordance correlation coefficient.ResultsThere was a strong concordance between automatic and manual segmentations with median DS for SM, VAT, and SAT of 0.97 (IQR: 0.95-0.98), 0.98 (IQR: 0.95-0.98), and 0.95 (IQR: 0.92-0.97), respectively. Concordance correlations were excellent: SM 0.964 (0.959-0.968), VAT 0.998 (0.998-0.998), and SAT 0.992 (0.991-0.993). Bland-Altman metrics indicated only small and clinically insignificant systematic offsets; SM radiodensity: 0.23 Hounsfield units (0.5%), SM: 1.26 cm2.m−2 (2.8%), VAT: −1.02 cm2.m−2 (1.7%), and SAT: 3.24 cm2.m−2 (4.6%).ConclusionA robustly-performing and independently externally validated DLNN for automated body composition analysis was developed.Advances in knowledgeThis DLNN was successfully trained and externally validated on several large patient cohorts. The trained algorithm could facilitate large-scale population studies and implementation of body composition analysis into clinical practice.

Prostate cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in men and is a major cause of mortality in the most of countries. In many diagnostic and treatment procedures for prostate disease accurate detection of prostate boundaries in transrectal ultrasound(TRUS) images is required. This is a challenging and difficult task due to weak prostate boundaries, speckle noise and the short range of gray levels. In this paper a method for automatic prostate segmentation in TRUS images using Gabor feature extraction and snake-like contour is presented. This method involves preprocessing, extracting Gabor feature, training, and prostate segmentation. The speckle reduction for preprocessing step has been achieved by using stick filter and top-hat transform has been implemented for smoothing the contour. A Gabor filter bank for extraction of rotation- invariant texture features has been implemented. A support vector machine(SVM) for training step has been used to get each feature of prostate and nonprostate. Finally, the boundary of prostate is extracted by the snake-like contour algorithm. A number of experiments are conducted to validate this method and results showed that this new algorithm extracted the prostate boundary with less than 10.2% of the accuracy which is relative to boundary provided manually by experts Keywords—Gabor Filter Bank, Support Vector Machines, Prostate Segmentation

BackgroundConflicting findings were observed in recent studies assessing the association between patients’ area-level socio-economic status and the received number of computed tomography (CT) examinations in children. The aim was to investigate the association between area-level socio-economic status and variation in CT examination practice for pediatric patients in Germany.MethodsData from Radiology Information Systems for children aged 0 to < 15 years without cancer who had at least one CT examination between 2001 and 2010 were extracted in 20 hospitals across Germany. The small-area German Index of Multiple Deprivation (GIMD) was used to assess regional deprivation. The GIMD scores were classified into least, medium and most deprived areas and linked with the patient’s last known postal code. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to assess the association between patients’ CT numbers and regional deprivation adjusting for age, sex, and location of residence (urban/rural).ResultsA total of 37,810 pediatric patients received 59,571 CT scans during the study period. 27,287 (72%) children received only one CT, while n = 885 (2.3%) received six or more. Increasing numbers of CT examinations in non-cancer patients were significantly associated with higher regional deprivation, which increased, although CI overlap, for higher CT categories: ‘2–3 CT’ odds ratio (OR) = 1.45, 95%CI: 1.40–1.50; ‘4–5 CT’ OR = 1.48, 95%CI: 1.38–1.59; ‘6+CT’ OR = 1.54, 95%CI: 1.41–1.69. In addition, male sex, higher age categories, and specific body regions were positively associated with increased numbers of CT examinations.ConclusionWe observed a positive association between regional deprivation and CT numbers in non-cancer pediatric patients. Limitations of the ecological approach and the lack of differentiation of CT details have to be acknowledged. More information on CT indications is necessary for a full assessment of this finding. In addition, further work on ways to assess socio-economic status more accurately may be required.