title: Classification of focal liver lesions on ultrasound images by extracting hybrid textural features and using an artificial neural network.
abstract: This paper focuses on the improvement of the diagnostic accuracy of focal liver lesions by quantifying the key features of cysts, hemangiomas, and malignant lesions on ultrasound images. The focal liver lesions were divided into 29 cysts, 37 hemangiomas, and 33 malignancies. A total of 42 hybrid textural features that composed of 5 first order statistics, 18 gray level co-occurrence matrices, 18 Law's, and echogenicity were extracted. A total of 29 key features that were selected by principal component analysis were used as a set of inputs for a feed-forward neural network. For each lesion, the performance of the diagnosis was evaluated by using the positive predictive value, negative predictive value, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. The results of the experiment indicate that the proposed method exhibits great performance, a high diagnosis accuracy of over 96% among all focal liver lesion groups (cyst vs. hemangioma, cyst vs. malignant, and hemangioma vs. malignant) on ultrasound images. The accuracy was slightly increased when echogenicity was included in the optimal feature set. These results indicate that it is possible for the proposed method to be applied clinically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Devices Industry, Dongguk University-Seoul, (100-715) 26, Pil-dong 3-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yoo Na
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biotechnology, Dongguk University-Bio Medi Campus, (410-820) 32, Dongguk-ro, Ilsan Dong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
authors.forename: Ju Hwan
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biotechnology, Dongguk University-Bio Medi Campus, (410-820) 32, Dongguk-ro, Ilsan Dong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
authors.forename: Ga Young
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biotechnology, Dongguk University-Bio Medi Campus, (410-820) 32, Dongguk-ro, Ilsan Dong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yuan Yuan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Devices Industry, Dongguk University-Seoul, (100-715) 26, Pil-dong 3-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea.|Department of Medical Biotechnology, Dongguk University-Bio Medi Campus, (410-820) 32, Dongguk-ro, Ilsan Dong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000069550:Machine Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography
keywords: Ultrasound; artificial neural network; classification; focal liver lesions