Published in:
01-04-2017 | Original Article
Morphology filter bank for extracting nodular and linear patterns in medical images
Authors:
Ryutaro Hashimoto, Yoshikazu Uchiyama, Keiichi Uchimura, Gou Koutaki, Tomoki Inoue
Published in:
International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery
|
Issue 4/2017
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Abstract
Purpose
Using image processing to extract nodular or linear shadows is a key technique of computer-aided diagnosis schemes. This study proposes a new method for extracting nodular and linear patterns of various sizes in medical images.
Methods
We have developed a morphology filter bank that creates multiresolution representations of an image. Analysis bank of this filter bank produces nodular and linear patterns at each resolution level. Synthesis bank can then be used to perfectly reconstruct the original image from these decomposed patterns.
Results
Our proposed method shows better performance based on a quantitative evaluation using a synthesized image compared with a conventional method based on a Hessian matrix, often used to enhance nodular and linear patterns. In addition, experiments show that our method can be applied to the followings: (1) microcalcifications of various sizes in mammograms can be extracted, (2) blood vessels of various sizes in retinal fundus images can be extracted, and (3) thoracic CT images can be reconstructed while removing normal vessels.
Conclusions
Our proposed method is useful for extracting nodular and linear shadows or removing normal structures in medical images.