title: Computerized scheme for the detection of pulmonary nodules. A nonlinear filtering technique.
abstract: To aid radiologists in the detection of lung cancer, the authors are developing a computer-aided diagnosis system that locates areas suspicious for nodules in digital chest radiographs. The system involves a difference-image approach and various feature-extraction techniques. The authors describe nonlinear filters used in the difference-image approach. A morphological open operation and a ring-shaped median filter are applied in the difference-image step for signal enhancement and signal suppression, respectively. Using 60 clinical chest radiographs, the nonlinear filtering method detected approximately 63% of actual nodules with approximately 19 false-positive results per image. The locations of the false-positive detections, however, usually did not coincide with those from the linear filtering method. Thus, by using a combination of the detections from the two methods, the false-positive rate was reduced to two to three per image at a sensitivity of 60%.
authors.affiliation: Kurt Rossmann Laboratories for Radiologic Image Research, Department of Radiology, University of Chicago, IL 60637.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Giger
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Doi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: MacMahon
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Montner
mesh_terms: D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005374:Filtration / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*