A novel method for pulmonary embolism detection in CTA images.
In this paper, we propose a new computer-aided detection (CAD) - based method to detect pulmonary embolism (PE) in computed tomography angiography images (CTAI). Since lung vessel segmentation is the main objective to provide high sensitivity in PE detection, this method performs accurate lung vessel segmentation. To concatenate clogged vessels due to PEs, the starting region of PEs and some reference points (RPs) are determined. These RPs are detected according to the fixed anatomical structures. After lung vessel tree is segmented, the region, intensity, and size of PEs are used to distinguish them. We used the data sets that have heart disease or abnormal tissues because of lung disease except PE in this work. According to the results, 428 of 450 PEs, labeled by the radiologists from 33 patients, have been detected. The sensitivity of the developed system is 95.1% at 14.4 false positive per data set (FP/ds). With this performance, the proposed CAD system is found quite useful to use as a second reader by the radiologists.
Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: haydarozkan79@gmail.com.
Haydar
H
Özkan
Arel University, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Istanbul, Turkey.
Onur
O
Osman
Dr. Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Department of Radiology, Istanbul, Turkey.
Sinan
S
Şahin
Sakarya University Technology Faculty, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Sakarya, Turkey.
Ali Fuat
AF
Boz
D000792:Angiography / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019295:Computational Biology; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008168:Lung / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008482:Mediastinum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011667:Pulmonary Veins / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012985:Software Design; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
Computed tomography angiography (CTA); Computer aided detection (CAD); Lung segmentation; Lung vessel segmentation; Pulmonary embolism (PE)