title: Volumetric analysis of liver metastases in computed tomography with the fuzzy C-means algorithm.
abstract: Tumor size is often determined from computed tomography (CT) images to assess disease progression. A study was conducted to demonstrate the advantages of the fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm for volumetric analysis of colorectal liver metastases in comparison with manual contouring. Intra-and interobserver variability was assessed for manual contouring and the FCM algorithm in a study involving contrast-enhanced helical CT images of 43 hypoattenuating liver lesions from 15 patients with a history of colorectal cancer. Measurement accuracy and interscan variability of the FCM and manual methods were assessed in a phantom study using paraffin pseudotumors. In the clinical imaging study, intra-and interobserver variability was reduced using the FCM algorithm as compared with manual contouring (P = 0.0070 and P = 0.0019, respectively). Accuracy of the measurement of the pseudotumor volume was improved using the FCM method as compared with the manual method (P = 0.047). Interscan variability of the pseudotumor volumes was measured using the FCM method as compared with the manual method (P = 0.04). The FCM algorithm volume was highly correlated with the manual contouring volume (r = 0.9997). Finally, the shorter time spent in calculating tumor volume using the FCM method versus the manual contouring method was marginally statistically significant (P = 0.080). These results suggest that the FCM algorithm has substantial advantages over manual contouring for volumetric measurement of colorectal liver metastases from CT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA. yimpj@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Yim
authors.forename: Amit V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Vora
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raghavan
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McAullife
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ohman-Strickland
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Nosher
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000556:secondary*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012372:ROC Curve; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*