title: CADBOSS: A computer-aided diagnosis system for whole-body bone scintigraphy scans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to develop a computer-aided diagnosis system for bone scintigraphy scans. (CADBOSS). CADBOSS can detect metastases with a high success rates. The primary purpose of CADBOSS is as supplementary software to facilitate physician's decision making.
  
  
  METHODS
  CADBOSS consists of various elements, such as hotspot segmentation, feature extraction/selection and classification. A level set active contour segmentation algorithm was used for the detection of hotspots. Moreover, a novel image gridding method was proposed for feature extraction of metastatic regions. An artificial neural network classifier was used to determine whether metastases were present. Performance evaluation of CADBOSS was performed with the help of an image database which included 130 images. (30 non-metastases and 100 metastases) collected from 60 volunteers. All images were obtained within approximately 3 hours after injecting a small amount of radioactive material 99mTc-MDP into the patients and then carrying out scanning with a gamma camera. The 10-fold cross-validation technique was used for all tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CADBOSS could correctly identify in 120 out of 130 images. Thus, the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of CADBOSS were 92.30%, 94%, and 86.67%, respectively. Moreover, CADBOSS increased physician's success in detecting metastases from 95.38% to 96.9%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Detailed experiments showed that CADBOSS outperforms state-of-the-art computer-aided diagnosis. (CAD) systems and reasonably improves physician' diagnostic success.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Technology, Technical and Vocational High School, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Burdur, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aslantas
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Technology, Technical and Vocational High School, Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University, Gulumbe Campus, Bilecik, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emre
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dandil
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Konya Educational and Research Hospital, Konya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Semahat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saǧlam
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechatronics, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Çakiroǧlu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000379:methods; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000379:methods