title: Developing an Intelligent Automatic Appendix Extraction Method from Ultrasonography Based on Fuzzy ART and Image Processing.
abstract: Ultrasound examination (US) does a key role in the diagnosis and management of the patients with clinically suspected appendicitis which is the most common abdominal surgical emergency. Among the various sonographic findings of appendicitis, outer diameter of the appendix is most important. Therefore, clear delineation of the appendix on US images is essential. In this paper, we propose a new intelligent method to extract appendix automatically from abdominal sonographic images as a basic building block of developing such an intelligent tool for medical practitioners. Knowing that the appendix is located at the lower organ area below the bottom fascia line, we conduct a series of image processing techniques to find the fascia line correctly. And then we apply fuzzy ART learning algorithm to the organ area in order to extract appendix accurately. The experiment verifies that the proposed method is highly accurate (successful in 38 out of 40 cases) in extracting appendix.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering, Silla University, Busan 617-736, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kwang Baek
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9475-8223
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun Jun
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1365-0232
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Games, Yong-In Songdam College, Yongin 449-040, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Doo Heon
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Inje University Busan Paik Hospital, Busan 614-735, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sang-suk
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001065:Appendix / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D019295:Computational Biology; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D014463:Ultrasonography; D000069558:Unsupervised Machine Learning