Review on the Methods of Automatic Liver Segmentation from Abdominal Images

Automatic liver segmentation from abdominal images is challenging on the aspects of segmentation accuracy, automation and robustness. There exist many methods of liver segmentation and ways of categorisingthem. In this paper, we present a new way of summarizing the latest achievements in automatic liver segmentation. We categorise a segmentation method according to the image feature it works on, therefore better summarising the performance of each category and leading to finding an optimal solution for a particular segmentation task. All the methods of liver segmentation are categorized into three main classes including gray level based method, structure based method and texture based method. In each class, the latest advance is reviewed with summary comments on the advantages and drawbacks of each discussed approach. Performance comparisons among the classes are given along with the remarks on the problems existed and possible solutions. In conclusion, we point out that liver segmentation is still an open issue and the tendency is that multiple methods will be employed together to achieve better segmentation performance.

Automatic Alzheimer’s Disease Recognition from MRI Data Using Deep Learning Method

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is an incurable neurological condition that results in a progressive mental deterioration. Although definitive diagnosis of AD is difficult, in practice, AD diagnosis is largely based on clinical history and neuropsychological data including magnetic resource imaging (MRI). Increasing research has been reported on applying machine learning to AD recognition in recent years. This paper presents our latest contribution to the advance. It describes an automatic AD recognition algorithm that is based on deep learning on 3D brain MRI. The algorithm uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) to fulfil AD recognition. It is unique in that the three dimensional topology of brain is considered as a whole in AD recognition, resulting in an accurate recognition. The CNN used in this study consists of three consecutive groups of processing layers, two fully connected layers and a classification layer. In the structure, every one of the three groups is made up of three layers, including a convolutional layer, a pooling layer and a normalization layer. The algorithm was trained and tested using the MRI data from Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. The data used include the MRI scanning of about 47 AD patients and 34 normal controls. The experiment had shown that the proposed algorithm delivered a high AD recognition accuracy with a sensitivity of 1 and a specificity of 0.93.

Improvement of Liver Segmentation by Combining High Order Statistical Texture Features with Anatomical Structural Features

Automatic segmentation of liver in medical images is challenging on the aspects of accuracy, automation and robustness. A crucial stage of the liver segmentation is the selection of the image features for the segmentation. This paper presents an accurate liver segmentation algorithm. The approach starts with a texture analysis which results in an optimal set of texture features including high order statistical texture features and anatomical structural features. Then, it creates liver distribution image by classifying the original image pixelwisely using support vector machines. Lastly, it uses a group of morphological operations to locate the liver organ accurately in the image. The novelty of the approach is resided in the fact that the features are so selected that both local and global texture distributions are considered, which is important in liver organ segmentation where neighbouring tissues and organs have similar greyscale distributions. Experiment results of liver segmentation on CT images using the proposed method are presented with performance validation and discussion.

Liver Segmentation from CT Image Using Fuzzy Clustering and Level Set

This paper presents a fully automatic segmentation method of liver CT scans using fuzzy c-mean clustering and level set. First, the contrast of original image is enhanced to make boundaries clearer;second, a spatial fuzzy c-mean clustering combining with anatomical prior knowledge is employed to extract liver region automatically;thirdly, a distance regularized level set is used for refinement;finally, morphological operations are used as post-processing. The experiment result shows that the method can achieve high accuracy (0.9986) and specificity (0.9989). Comparing with standard level set method, our method is more effective in dealing with over-segmentation problem.

Automatic and Robust Segmentation of Multiple Sclerosis Lesions with Convolutional Neural Networks

The diagnosis of multiple sclerosis(MS)is based on accurate detection of lesions on magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)which also provides ongoing essential information about the progression and status of the disease.Manual detection of lesions is very time consuming and lacks accuracy.Most of the lesions are difficult to detect manually,especially within the grey matter.This paper proposes a novel and fully automated convolution neural network(CNN)approach to segment lesions.The proposed system consists of two 2D patchwise CNNs which can segment lesions more accurately and robustly.The first CNN network is implemented to segment lesions accurately,and the second network aims to reduce the false positives to increase efficiency.The system consists of two parallel convolutional pathways,where one pathway is concatenated to the second and at the end,the fully connected layer is replaced with CNN.Three routine MRI sequences T1-w,T2-w and FLAIR are used as input to the CNN,where FLAIR is used for segmentation because most lesions on MRI appear as bright regions and T1-w&T2-w are used to reduce MRI artifacts.We evaluated the proposed system on two challenge datasets that are publicly available from MICCAI and ISBI.Quantitative and qualitative evaluation has been performed with various metrics like false positive rate(FPR),true positive rate(TPR)and dice similarities,and were compared to current state-of-the-art methods.The proposed method shows consistent higher precision and sensitivity than other methods.The proposed method can accurately and robustly segment MS lesions from images produced by different MRI scanners,with a precision up to 90%.

Disease Diagnosis System Using IoT Empowered with Fuzzy Inference System

Disease diagnosis is a challenging task due to a large number of associated factors.Uncertainty in the diagnosis process arises frominaccuracy in patient attributes,missing data,and limitation in the medical expert’s ability to define cause and effect relationships when there are multiple interrelated variables.This paper aims to demonstrate an integrated view of deploying smart disease diagnosis using the Internet of Things(IoT)empowered by the fuzzy inference system(FIS)to diagnose various diseases.The Fuzzy Systemis one of the best systems to diagnose medical conditions because every disease diagnosis involves many uncertainties,and fuzzy logic is the best way to handle uncertainties.Our proposed system differentiates new cases provided symptoms of the disease.Generally,it becomes a time-sensitive task to discriminate symptomatic diseases.The proposed system can track symptoms firmly to diagnose diseases through IoT and FIS smartly and efficiently.Different coefficients have been employed to predict and compute the identified disease’s severity for each sign of disease.This study aims to differentiate and diagnose COVID-19,Typhoid,Malaria,and Pneumonia.This study used the FIS method to figure out the disease over the use of given data related to correlating with input symptoms.MATLAB tool is utilised for the implementation of FIS.Fuzzy procedure on the aforementioned given data presents that affectionate disease can derive from the symptoms.The results of our proposed method proved that FIS could be utilised for the diagnosis of other diseases.This study may assist doctors,patients,medical practitioners,and other healthcare professionals in early diagnosis and better treat diseases.