title: Computerized detection of abnormal asymmetry in digital chest radiographs.
abstract: A technique for automated detection of abnormal asymmetry in digital chest radiographs is being developed. Such a method could be used to prescreen chest radiographs to bring obviously abnormal cases to the immediate attention of a radiologist. In addition, this technique may be used to detect large-area abnormalities which may cause other, more lesion-specific computer algorithms to fail. Asymmetric abnormalities are detected by multiple stages of gray-level thresholding. Lung contours are determined, and after a centroid test is used to eliminate contours external to the lungs, the areas of remaining contours are calculated. The present scheme, applied to a database of 70 chest images, yielded a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 80%.
authors.affiliation: Kurt Rossmann Laboratories for Radiologic Image Research, Department of Radiology, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637.
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Armato
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Giger
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: MacMahon
mesh_terms: D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D006801:Humans; D008482:Mediastinum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic / Q000379:methods*