title: Automatic 3D pulmonary nodule detection in CT images: A survey.
abstract: This work presents a systematic review of techniques for the 3D automatic detection of pulmonary nodules in computerized-tomography (CT) images. Its main goals are to analyze the latest technology being used for the development of computational diagnostic tools to assist in the acquisition, storage and, mainly, processing and analysis of the biomedical data. Also, this work identifies the progress made, so far, evaluates the challenges to be overcome and provides an analysis of future prospects. As far as the authors know, this is the first time that a review is devoted exclusively to automated 3D techniques for the detection of pulmonary nodules from lung CT images, which makes this work of noteworthy value. The research covered the published works in the Web of Science, PubMed, Science Direct and IEEEXplore up to December 2014. Each work found that referred to automated 3D segmentation of the lungs was individually analyzed to identify its objective, methodology and results. Based on the analysis of the selected works, several studies were seen to be useful for the construction of medical diagnostic aid tools. However, there are certain aspects that still require attention such as increasing algorithm sensitivity, reducing the number of false positives, improving and optimizing the algorithm detection of different kinds of nodules with different sizes and shapes and, finally, the ability to integrate with the Electronic Medical Record Systems and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems. Based on this analysis, we can say that further research is needed to develop current techniques and that new algorithms are needed to overcome the identified drawbacks.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Federal do Ceará, Campus Maracanaú, Av. Parque Central, S/N, Distrito Industrial I, 61939-140 Maracanaú, Ceará, Brazil; Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Engenharia de Teleinformática, Av. Mister Hull, S/N, Campus do Pici, 6005, 60455-760 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Igor Rafael S
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Engenharia de Teleinformática, Av. Mister Hull, S/N, Campus do Pici, 6005, 60455-760 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo César
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Cortez
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Engenharia de Teleinformática, Av. Mister Hull, S/N, Campus do Pici, 6005, 60455-760 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Edson Cavalcanti
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Neto
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Engenharia de Teleinformática, Av. Mister Hull, S/N, Campus do Pici, 6005, 60455-760 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
authors.forename: José Marques
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-Graduacão em Informática Aplicada, Universidade de Fortaleza, Av. Washington Soares, 1321, Edson Queiroz, 60811341, CEP 608113-41 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil.
authors.forename: Victor Hugo C
authors.initials: VH
authors.lastname: de Albuquerque
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciência e Inovacão em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Industrial, Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, S/N, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: tavares@fe.up.pt.
authors.forename: João Manuel R S
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tavares
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D000069550:Machine Learning; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012984:Software; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
keywords: 3D image segmentation; Computer-aided detection systems; Lung cancer; Medical image analysis; Pulmonary nodules