title: Classification of in vivo autofluorescence spectra using support vector machines.
abstract: An algorithm based on support vector machines (SVM), the most recent advance in pattern recognition, is presented for use in classifying light-induced autofluorescence collected from cancerous and normal tissues. The in vivo autofluorescence spectra used for development and evaluation of SVM diagnostic algorithms were measured from 85 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) lesions and 131 normal tissue sites from 59 subjects during routine nasal endoscopy. Leave-one-out cross-validation was used to evaluate the performance of the algorithms. An overall diagnostic accuracy of 96%, a sensitivity of 94%, and a specificity of 97% for discriminating nasopharyngeal carcinomas from normal tissues were achieved using a linear SVM algorithm. A diagnostic accuracy of 98%, a sensitivity of 95%, and a specificity of 99% for detecting NPC were achieved with a nonlinear SVM algorithm. In a comparison with previously developed algorithms using the same dataset and the principal component analysis (PCA) technique, the SVM algorithms produced better diagnostic accuracy in all instances. In addition, we investigated a method combining PCA and SVM techniques for reducing the complexity of the SVM algorithms.
authors.affiliation: Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: WuMei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Powing
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.forename: William I
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sham
authors.forename: PengCheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Jianan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qu
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003201:Computers; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*