Multilevel thresholding for segmentation of medical brain images using real coded genetic algorithm

Brain tumor segmentation in medical image analysis is a challenging task. Deep learning techniques have recently shown promise in resolving a variety of computer vision problems, such as semantic segmentation and image classification. Brain MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) requires precise brain image segmentation for effective, rapid diagnosis and treatment planning. However, it is quite difficult to manually segment the brain image rapidly and accurately in low-quality, noisy images. This paper proposes a U-Net and combined attention mechanism-based method. This research enhances the segmentation of images of tumors in the brain using modified U-net. Traditional U-net segmentation techniques are still widely used in the medical field, but they have a number of limitations when dealing with small targets and fuzzier boundaries. To address this issue, we made the following modifications to U-net: We propose attention mechanisms to assist the network in concentrating on important regions. The multiscale feature fusion strategy improves the efficacy of network segmentation at various scales. Cross-entropy loss function and data augmentation improve the performance of the network further. Our method was validated using the Brats2019 dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed methodology exhibits superior speed and efficiency compared to existing techniques in the context of brain image segmentation. The dice coefficients for the multiple branch TS-U-net model were 0.876, 0.868, and 0.814 in the tumor subregions of WT, TC, and ET, respectively. This exemplifies the feasibility and potential of our methodology for the segmentation of medical images.

Medical imaging is a technique to get images of the human body for medical science or clinical purposes. Segmentation of a medical image is a challenging task to isolate the suspicious region from the complex medical images. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are an effective tool to handle the problem of medical image segmentation. In this chapter, an application of color magnetic resonance (MR) brain image segmentation is presented by the parallel optimized multilevel sigmoidal (ParaOptiMUSIG) activation function with the parallel self-organizing neural network (PSONN) architecture. Not only confined within this approach, color MR brain image is also segmented by the NSGA-II-based ParaOptiMUSIG activation function to incorporate the multiple objective function-based scenario. These methods are compared with the process of color MR brain image segmentation by the MUSIG activation function with the PSONN architecture. All the methods are applied on a real-life color MR brain image and the quality of the segmented images are accessed by four standard objective functions. The comparison shows that the ParaOptiMUSIG activation function-based method and the NSGA-II-based ParaOptiMUSIG activation function-based method perform better than the MUSIG activation function-based method to segment the color MR brain image.

Segmentation of MRI brain images plays a critical role in medical image processing and analysis. In this paper, a new method based on Markov Random Field (MRF) is proposed for segmentation of MR brain images. We consider the low-level MRF as a linear combination of Gaussians (LCG) with positive and negative component, and we use the modified Expectation-maximization (MEM) algorithm to estimate the mean, variance and proportion for each distribution.The MEM algorithm is sensitive to initial parameters, so we improve the method of initialization. In high-level MRF, we use Potts model to describe the label image. By using the Bayesian maximum a posterior (MAP) rule, the segmentation problem is converted to precisely identify the models parameters. The MAP estimation is obtained using the Metroplis algorithm to search the optimization. The experimental results show that the proposed method is effective for segmentation of MR brain images.

—Segmenting tumor from MRI images is an essential but time consuming manual duty. Performing an automatic segmentation is a defying task since different forms of tumor tissue exist for diverse patients and in many cases the tumor is similar to the normal tissue. Various studies proposed earlier to handle the issue of precisely segmenting the tumor but they discard the degradations and their effect to the precision of the segmentation. This article provides a more precise segmentation process through the use of appropriate pre-processing algorithms. The authors studied many enhancement and restoration algorithms and selected the NL-means, Laplacian filter and histogram equalization to be used as preprocessing techniques. Experimental results showed that using a suitable preprocessing scheme would produce a better segmentation process. Index Terms — Medical image processing, Tumor segmentation, MRI images, Non-local Means, Histogram equalization, Laplacian filter. I. INTRODUCTION A tumor is a mass of tissue that grows out of control of the normal forces that regulates growth. Brain tumor has a higher mortality rate when compared to more common types of cancer. This underlines the need of accurate prognosis of brain tumor in health care industry [1]. MRI has become a widely-used method of high-quality medical imaging, especially in brain imaging [2]. Image segmentation refers to the process of partitioning a digital image into multiple segments, also known as super pixels. Image segmentation is an important process in computer vision and image processing, which divides an image into a number of disjoint regions such that the pixels have high similarity in order to use its different fields; science, medical, agriculture and industrial fields [3]. Besides, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images are known to be corrupted by noise [4], blur [5] and low contrast artifact [6]. Therefore, this article discusses the issue of achieving a better segmentation through the use of proper image restoration and enhancement techniques. Moreover, the accurate and automatic segmentation of a brain tumor on MRI image is of great interest for assessing tumor growth and treatment responses, enhancing computer-assisted surgery, and constructing tumor growth models [7]. For those reasons, an automatic and reliable tumor segmentation method would be a useful tool since the medical image segmentation plays an instrumental role in clinical diagnosis [8]. The rest of the article sections are organized as the following: in section two, a brief elucidation about some related studies is presented as the used literature review. Moreover, detailed explanations about the employed algorithms are delivered in section three as a methodology. Also, the results of the proposed methodology are illustrated in section four as the experimental results. Likewise, a detailed discussion about the use of certain algorithms and its results is deliberated in section five. Finally, a brief closure about this article is provided in section six as a conclusion. II. LITERATURE REVIEW In this section, three recent studies are briefly described. The first study was presented by [9] which proposed a texture based analysis to identify irregularity in the brain and automatic segmentation using seeded region growing segmentation. The method of tumor detection based on the texture of the MRI is proposed to segment the abnormality from the regular adjacent, although small quantities misclassified, but the segmentation result is precise. Moreover, [10] suggested a strong technique for automatic detection of tumor for brain MRI images. He also proposed a new morphological technique which is used for the stripped skull region from the brain images. Detecting tumor precisely based on seeded region growing segmentation on an improved single seed point selection algorithm is

Deep learning has achieved great success in the field of computer vision, and the precision in image classification and image detection has surpassed humans. Therefore, this paper combines deep learning and medical image segmentation, focusing on how to improve the accuracy and speed of segmentation algorithm of medical exercise rehabilitation image. Aiming at the shortcomings of traditional medical image recognition methods, a medical exercise rehabilitation image segmentation algorithm based on hierarchical features of convolutional neural networks is proposed, this paper calls it as hierarchical features of convolutional neural networks (HFCNN). The algorithm firstly samples the convolution output of multiple layers in the convolutional neural network to a unified scale and combines them to construct a hierarchical feature. This hierarchical feature combines the structural information of objects contained in the shallow layer of the network with the semantic information of objects contained in the deep layers of the network, so it has a strong ability to express. Secondly, the image can be segmented into multiple super pixels by the super pixel segmentation algorithm. The classifier is trained using the hierarchical features of the super pixel, and then the classification result is mapped back to the pixel. Finally, a fully connected conditional random field algorithm including one-potential potential energy and paired potential energy is constructed. The corresponding energy function is used to smooth the classification result of the pixel, and the regional consistency and continuity of the pixel mark are improved. Compared with many classical convolutional neural network algorithms, this algorithm not only accelerates the network convergence speed, shortens the training time, but also significantly improves the accuracy of segmentation algorithm of medical exercise rehabilitation image, showing good practical value.

Segmentation of magnetic resonance images is medically complex and important for study and diagnosis of medical brain images, because of its sensitivity in terms of noise for brain medical images. These are the main issues in classification of brain images. Because of uncertainty & vagueness of brain medical images, so that rough sets, fuzzy sets and Rough sets are mathematical tools evaluate and handle uncertainty and vagueness in medical brain images. Traditionally, different type of fuzzy sets, Rough sets and rough sets based approaches were introduced, they have different several drawbacks with respect to different parameters. So this paper introduces a novel image segmentation calculation method i.e. Enhanced and Explored Intuitionistic Rough based Fuzzy C-means Approach (EEISFCMA) with estimation of weight bias parameter for brain image segmentation. Intuitionistic Rough based fuzzy sets are generalized form of fuzzy, Rough sets and their representative elements are evaluated with non-membership and membership value. Proposed algorithm of this paper consists standard features of existing clustering without spatial weight context data, it defines sensitive of noise in brain images, so that our proposed algorithm deals with intensity and noise reduction of brain image effectively. Furthermore, to reduce iterations in clustering, proposed algorithm initializes cluster centroid based on weight measure using max-dist evaluation method before execution of proposed algorithm. Experimental results of proposed approach carried out efficient image segmentation results compared to existing segmented approaches developed in brain image and other related images. Mainly proposed approach have consists better experimental evaluation based on results.

In recent years, generative adversarial networks (GANs) have gained tremendous popularity for various imaging related tasks such as artificial image generation to support AI training. GANs are especially useful for medical imaging-related tasks where training datasets are usually limited in size and heavily imbalanced against the diseased class. We present a systematic review, following the PRISMA guidelines, of recent GAN architectures used for medical image analysis to help the readers in making an informed decision before employing GANs in developing medical image classification and segmentation models. We have extracted 54 papers that highlight the capabilities and application of GANs in medical imaging from January 2015 to August 2020 and inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. Our results show four main architectures of GAN that are used for segmentation or classification in medical imaging. We provide a comprehensive overview of recent trends in the application of GANs in clinical diagnosis through medical image segmentation and classification and ultimately share experiences for task-based GAN implementations.

Machine learning techniques such as deep learning methods have produced promising results in medical images analysis. This work proposes a user-friendly system that utilizes deep learning techniques for detecting and diagnosing diseases using medical images. This includes the design of CAD-based project that can reduce human factor-related errors while performing manual screening of medical images. The system accepts medical images as input and performs segmentation of the images. Segmentation process analyzes and identifies the region of interest (ROI) of diseases from medical images. Analyzing and segmentation of medical images has assisted in the diagnosis and monitoring of some diseases. Diseases such as skin cancer, age-related fovea degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and choroidal neovascularization can be effectively managed by the analysis of skin lesion and retinal vessels images. The proposed system was evaluated on diseases such as diabetic retinopathy from retina images and skin cancer from dermoscopic images.

Medical image segmentation is a fundamental task in medical image analysis and has been widely applied in multiple medical fields. The latest transformer-based deep learning segmentation model, Segment Anything Model (SAM), has demonstrated outstanding performance in natural image segmentation tasks through large-scale pre-training, achieving zero-shot image semantic understanding and pixel-level segmentation. However, medical images present challenges such as style variability, ill-defined object boundaries, and feature ambiguities, limiting the direct applicability of the SAM to medical image segmentation tasks. To enhance the robustness of the SAM in the domain of medical segmentation, we propose the SAM-RCCF framework. This approach aims to enhance the generalizability and precision of segmentation performance across diverse intracranial tumor types, including gliomas, metastatic tumors, and meningiomas. The study collected 484 axial T1-weighted contrast-enhanced (T1CE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of brain tumor patients, including 164 cases of glioma, 158 cases of metastatic tumors, and 162 cases of meningioma. All imaging data were randomly divided into training and testing sets. We employed the proposed SAM-RCCF model to perform segmentation experiments on these data, and five-fold cross-validation was adopted to evaluate the model's performance. This framework integrates the RefineNet module and the conditional control field with a conditional controller and Mask generator, enabling precise feature recognition and tailored segmentation for medical images, optimizing segmentation accuracy RESULTS: In the glioma segmentation experiment, the SAM-RCCF model achieved outstanding performance with an IOU of 0.90, DSC of 0.912, and HD of 13.13. For the meningioma segmentation task, it obtained an IOU of 0.9214, DSC of 0.93, and HD of 11.41, significantly outperforming other classic segmentation models. The segmentation experiment results demonstrate that in the segmentation tasks of glioma, metastatic tumors, and meningioma MRI images, the SAM-RCCF algorithm significantly outperformed the original SAM in terms of DSC, HD, and IOU segmentation performance metrics. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the SAM-RCCF framework in segmenting complex and variable brain tumor images, enhancing segmentation accuracy and robustness.

Need for medical imaging has immensely increased to diagnose functionality of organs and tissues. Application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized tomography scan (CT scan) has automated the process of disease prediction which otherwise would need manual intervention of experienced physicians. Critical transplants and tumor diagnosis of kidney, heart and liver could be very challenging without the application of high-resolution medical imaging. Semantic image segmentation helps to identify features within the image and label them to demarcate the background from organs and tumors formed on them. Current proposed model is built by applying image segmentation using deep learning models by training 3D image information obtained from KITS-19 using CNN U-Net architecture to segregate essential tumor details from the kidney background images. Considering the evaluation of medical condition based on imagery is very challenging due to lack of pre-processing methods to handle unbalanced nature of class distribution which is common in medical imaging. In the current research, we apply state-of-the-art convolution neural network and deep learning models to predict the tumor in MRI imagery. We performed evaluation of a subset of 60 CT scans with slice thickness values obtained from KiTS19 dataset. We also compared the image segmentation model with BRATS’2013 challenging dataset also to validate the prediction of tumor in brain MRI scan images. Performance evaluation of kidney and tumor features obtained through threefold cross validation comparing with ground truth gave us dice coefficient score of 0.96 while tumor segmentation prediction was close to 0.80. We believe the performance can be increased through higher GPU memory requirements, which was a limitation to our existing GPU hardware. Nevertheless, the possibility of applying improved deep learning model based on existing results and can be a promising step forward in medical imaging segmentation.

Medical image segmentation, the process of precisely delineating regions of interest (e.g. organs, lesions, cells) within medical images, is a pivotal technique in medical image analysis. It finds widespread application in computer‐aided diagnosis, surgical planning, radiation therapy, and pathological analysis, thus playing a crucial role in enabling precision medicine and enhancing the quality of clinical care. Traditional medical image segmentation methods often rely on hand‐crafted features and rule‐based approaches, which struggle to handle the inherent complexity and variability of medical imagery, leading to limitations in segmentation accuracy and robustness. Recently, deep learning methodologies, driven by their powerful capabilities in automatic feature learning and non‐linear modelling, have overcome the limitations of traditional methods and achieved significant advancements in the field of medical image segmentation. This review provides a comprehensive overview and summary of recent progress in deep learning‐based medical image segmentation, with a particular focus on fully supervised learning paradigms leveraging convolutional neural networks, transformers, and the segment anything model. We delve into the underlying principles, network architectures, advantages, and limitations of these approaches. Furthermore, we systematically compare their performance across diverse imaging modalities, anatomical structures, and pathological targets. We also present a curated compilation of commonly used datasets, evaluation metrics, and loss functions relevant to medical image segmentation. Finally, we discuss future research directions and potential challenges, offering insights into the evolving landscape of this critical field.

Artificial intelligence algorithms have been used in a wide range of applications in clinical aided diagnosis, such as automatic MR image segmentation and seizure EEG signal analyses. In recent years, many machine learning-based automatic MR brain image segmentation methods have been proposed as auxiliary methods of medical image analysis in clinical treatment. Nevertheless, many problems regarding precise medical images, which cannot be effectively utilized to improve partition performance, remain to be solved. Due to the poor contrast in grayscale images, the ambiguity and complexity of MR images, and individual variability, the performance of classic algorithms in medical image segmentation still needs improvement. In this paper, we introduce a distributed multitask fuzzy c-means (MT-FCM) clustering algorithm for MR brain image segmentation that can extract knowledge common among different clustering tasks. The proposed distributed MT-FCM algorithm can effectively exploit information common among different but related MR brain image segmentation tasks and can avoid the negative effects caused by noisy data that exist in some MR images. Experimental results on clinical MR brain images demonstrate that the distributed MT-FCM method demonstrates more desirable performance than the classic signal task method.

The segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) brain images is an important problem in medical imaging. Accurate segmentation of MR brain images allows a detail study of 3D brain tissue anatomy. It is also of great interest in the study of many brain disorders, where accurate volumetric measurement of the disorders is often required. In view of the importance of the task, much effort has been spent on finding accurate and efficient algorithms for the MRI segmentation problem. This chapter attempts to give the readers an overview of the MR brain segmentation problem, the various image artifacts that are often encountered, and describe some of the current approaches in this area, as well as our own work. To facilitate discussion, we broadly divide current MR brain image segmentation algorithms into three categories: classification-based, region-based, and contour-based methods, and discuss the merits and limitations of these approaches. Following a review of existing methods, we describe our approach for MR brain image segmentation in detail. Our approach is based on a clustering-for-classification framework, using a novel variant of the fuzzy c-means algorithm. We show that by incorporating two key ideas into the clustering algorithm, we are able to take into account the local spatial context, to compensate for the intensity nonuniformity artifact and the partial volume averaging artifact, and to reduce the influence of image noise, during the segmentation process. Extensive experiment results on both simulated and real MR brain images are given to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of our approach. We conclude this chapter by pointing to some possible future directions in this area.

In the modern globe, digital medical image processing is a major branch to study in the fields of medical and information technology. Every medical field relies on digital medical imaging in diagnosis for most of their cases. One of the major components of medical image analysis is medical image segmentation. Medical image segmentation participates in the diagnosis process, and it aids the processes of other medical image components to increase the accuracy. In unsupervised methods, fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering is the most accurate method for image segmentation, and it can be smooth and bear desirable outcomes. The intention of this study is to establish a strong systematic way to segment complicate medical image cases depend on the proposed method to share in the decision-making process. This study mentions medical image modalities and illustrates the steps of the FCM clustering method mathematically with example. It segments magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain to separate tumor inside the brain MRI according to four statuses.

Medical image processing and analysis operations, particularly segmentation, can benefit a great deal from prior information encoded to capture variations over a population in form, shape, anatomic layout, and image appearance of objects. Model/atlas-based methods are extant in medical image segmentation. Although multi-atlas/ multi-model methods have shown improved accuracy for image segmentation, if the atlases/models do not cover representatively the distinct groups, then the methods may not be generalizable to new populations. In a previous study, we have given an answer to address the following problem at image level: How many models/ atlases are needed for optimally encoding prior information to address the differing body habitus factor in a population? However, the number of models for different objects may be different, and at the image level, it may not be possible to infer the number of models needed for each object. So, the modified question to which we are now seeking an answer to in this paper is: How many models/ atlases are needed for optimally encoding prior information to address the differing body habitus factor for each object in a body region? To answer this question, we modified our method in the previous study for seeking the optimum grouping for a given population of images but focusing on the individual objects. We present our results on head and neck computed tomography (CT) scans of 298 patients.