title: Computed tomography carotid wall plaque characterization using a combination of discrete wavelet transform and texture features: A pilot study.
abstract: In 30% of stroke victims, the cause of stroke has been found to be the stenosis caused by plaques in the carotid artery. Early detection of plaque and subsequent classification of the same into symptomatic and asymptomatic can help the clinicians to choose only those patients who are at a higher risk of stroke for risky surgeries and stenosis treatments. Therefore, in this work, we have proposed a non-invasive computer-aided diagnostic technique to classify the detected plaque into the two classes. Computed tomography (CT) images of the carotid artery images were used to extract Local Binary Pattern (LBP) features and wavelet energy features. Significant features were then used to train and test several supervised learning algorithm based classifiers. The Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier with various kernel configurations was evaluated using LBP and wavelet features. The SVM classifier presented the highest accuracy of 88%, sensitivity of 90.2%, and specificity of 86.5% for radial basis function (RBF) kernel function. The CT images of the carotid artery provide unique 3D images of the artery and plaque that could be used for calculating percentage of stenosis. Our proposed technique enables automatic classification of plaque into asymptomatic and symptomatic with high accuracy, and hence, it can be used for deciding the course of treatment. We have also proposed a single-valued integrated index (Atheromatic Index) using the significant features which can provide a more objective and faster prediction of the class.
authors: Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore, Singapore. aru@np.edu.sg
authors: U R
authors: UR
authors: Acharya
authors: S Vinitha
authors: SV
authors: Sree
authors: M R K
authors: MR
authors: Mookiah
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Saba
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Gao
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Mallarini
authors: J S
authors: JS
authors: Suri
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D000792:Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D016893:Carotid Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013499:Surface Properties; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D058067:Wavelet Analysis
keywords: Computed tomography; carotid; classification; local binary pattern; plaque; wavelet