JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.

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Feature Extraction and Segmentation of CT Lungs Images for better Assessments

S. Yasin 1, M. S. Naweed 1, M. Rehman 1
Abstract Computed Tomography scan is widely being used for several medical diagnoses. CT imaging has already shown its practical impact in diagnosis of brain and lungs diseases. CT scan has brought to the seen; which was unseen before with the naked eye; and its native support as a digital imaging modality has invited the researchers to exploit the digital image processing techniques to better process the information available in the CT scan images as compared to the information processed by the naked eye. It is obvious that human vision has many constraints and limitations, and hence cannot process complete information available in the CT images; where as digital images can be manipulated by computer at pixel level. The objective of this research is to develop a segmentation technique in the field of medical imaging to help better visual inspection of certain lungs features which lead to better diagnosis of lungs diseases. In this research paper we have proposed a method by which the lungs are segmented using iterative threshold, morphological operators, and flood-fill algorithm; as well as basic lungs anatomy is labeled through eight-neighbor connectivity technique. Also, we have segmented different regions of the lungs anatomy by applying specific gray level filtering; through which the filtered anatomy of the lungs is not only separated but better examined as compared to previous implemented techniques. The overall accuracy of our results is almost 94%. Keywords: Computed Tomography (CT), Lungs Segmentation, Lungs Anatomy, Lungs Features Extraction, Image Processing

1 INTRODUCTION
ungs abnormalities in human cause different diseases especially in third world countries like Pakistan where health is major subject on which work is to be done. There is lack of latest medical technologies in Pakistan which is one of the major factors due to which these diseases are not diagnosed well in time and cause severe damages. Human eyes could not detect the abnormalities in human anatomy directly. Most of the time X-rays and Radio therapy is used to diagnose the diseases. But as the last decision is to be made by the medical practitioner; human eye error factor could not be ignored. Delay in diagnosis of the disease causes the death in extreme cases. Due to all these factors segmentation in the field of image processing is at high credit. Segmentation of digital images is the main area of image processing. Segmentation focuses on the particular area which is to be examined, highlights the region of interest and helps the medical practitioner to conclude some better diagnosis of diseases. Manual analysis may take enough time to examine this medical data. Automated analysis of such huge amount of medical data may lead to solution of this problem. Typically in medical imaging, the CT scan image data is in huge amount [1]. The iterative threshold [7] in combination to flood fill technique [5] is used to segment basic lungs anatomy. The objective is to develop a segmentation technique in order to help the doctors and surgeons to identify the abnormal portions of the lungs

for the treatment of certain illness [9] in a better way. The proposed method solves the problem using the better observation of human lungs anatomy. Lung nodules are better observed using our proposed methodology. This paper describes the iterative threshold based segmentation procedure and multi-gray-level filtering technique, which is designed to identify the certain lungs regions and extract the anatomical features of lungs. Interpretation of medical images is often difficult and time consuming, even for expert physicians. There are a number of algorithms for segmentation [5]. There is a lot of segmentation techniques applied [6]; but no one is perfect in all means. We have performed the segmentation on the CT images which were taken from Radiology Department, Bahawalpur Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

We have proposed a method for anatomical features extraction of the lungs. This method consists of a step by step procedure. In the first step we select the CT lungs image. In second step, the selected CT image is converted to binary image using iterative threshold technique. In third step, we apply erosion and dilation operators to fill unwanted gaps in the background and foreground of the binary image. Then, in fourth step, we obtain the original lungs image data by removing the background of lungs image. In this step we have extracted the background by combining 8-neighboor pixel connectivity and flood fill technique with four seed points; and then we have in S. Yasin Department of Computer Science, Islamia University of Bawalpur verted the resultant image to obtain the mask and applied M. S. Naweed Department of Computer Science, Islamia University of Bawalpur this mask to extract the lungs and rest of the anatomy. In M. Rehman Department of Computer Science, Islamia University of Bathe fifth step we have re-binarize the resultant image and
walpur

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

applied the SEDM (split-erode-dilate-merge) process. The

Original Lungs CT Image

processes mentioned in the methodology explained in Figure 1.

Covert to Binary Image (Iterative Threshold)

Obtain Lung Mask (Erosion + Dilation)

Obtain Lungs Region Of Interest (Background Removal: Obtain Mask, Invert Mask, Apply Mask)

Apply SEDM Process (Split, Erode, Dilate, Merge)

a) Original Image
Label Objects in Lungs (Left Lung, Right Lung, Trachea, Others) Extract Anatomical Features (Filter: Blood vessel, Soft tissues, Alveoli, Lungs Boundary)

b) Binary Image

Fig. 1. Step Wise Process of Features Extraction of the Lungs.

split part of the SEDM process breaks the image into many parts according to the anatomy separated in rebinarized image. The erode part of the SEDM process is applied 3-5 times on each part of the anatomy to grow and fill the un-desired gaps. The dilate part of the SEDM process is applied exactly the same 3-5 times to shrink each part of the image back to original size. The merge part of the SEDM process is used to combine the parts of the image back to single image. The purpose of SEDM process is not only to fill the unwanted gaps in lungs anatomy but also keeping the parts of the anatomy separated to each other; see differences in Figure 2. (d) and Figure 2. (i) clearly. The resultant image of the SEDM process is used as mask to extract lungs area with maximum accuracy obtained. In sixth step, the lungs image is labeled into different lungs regions. These regions are treated as separate objects of the lungs; such as left lung, right lung, trachea, and any other disconnected lung region (may be treated as noise). In seventh and last step we have extracted the anatomical features of lungs objects. These features are extracted using gray-level filtering and labeled as blood vessels, soft tissues, lungs boundary etc. These features are labeled by applying statistical observations over 20 CT scan data sets, each containing 20 to 30 slices each. This method gives us overall 94% accurate results.

c) After Erosion

d) After Dilation

e) Obtain Mask

f) Invert Mask

g) Lungs ROI

h) Re-Binarize

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this section we have shown the results of the different

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

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i) SEDM Applied

j) Lungs Only

Fig. 3. Complete Lung Anatomy by Gray Level Intensity Range from 0 to 255

When we take gray level intensity range from 0 to 24 then only trachea part is visible as Figure 4.
k) Left Lung l) Trachea

m) Right Lung

n) Blood Vessels

Fig. 4. Only Trachea Part by Gray Level Intensity Range from 0 to 24

As we increase the gray level intensity range from 24 to 47 then soft tissue material including air sacks has been observed as in Figure 5.
o) Soft Tissues

Fig. 2. Lungs Segmentation and Feature Extraction Process Results.

Here is another set of results examined by implementing the SEDM methodology to extract lungs and its features, with the help of software developed using C#.NET and windows operating system. First of all the original image is shown which lies between gray level intensity range from 0 to 255 in which complete lungs anatomy is visible as shown in Figure 3.

Fig. 5. Soft Tissue with Air Sacks by Gray Level Intensity Range from 25 to 46

It is observed that gray level intensity range from 25 to 38 and from 39 to 46 segments two regions which were combined in Figure 5. The first range from 25 to 38 shows alveoli and second range from 39 to 46 which shows soft tissues and their boundaries, which clearly help the medical practitioner about the anatomical structure of the lungs.

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

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Fig. 6. Alveoli by Gray Level Intensity Range from 25 to 38

Fig. 9. Blood Vessels with Lungs Boundaries by Gray Level Intensity Range from 67 to 255

4 EXTRACTION OF FEATURES FROM OTHER CT LUNGS IMAGES

Gray Levels Extracted Objects Image

0 24

Trachea

Fig. 7. Soft Tissues with Boundaries by Gray Level Intensity Range from 39 to 46

24 47

Rounded air sacks Soft tissue material

Furthermore as we move gray level intensity range from 47 to 66 then lungs blood vessels with boundary area with some soft tissues (noise) is visible in Figure 8.

39 46

Just alveoli

47 255

Blood vessels with boundaries and rest

55 255

Lung boundary + Blood vessels + Blood vessels boundary

Fig. 8. Blood Vessel Boundaries by Gray Level Intensity Range from 47 to 66

67 122

Blood vessels boundary only

At last when we set the gray level intensity range from 67 to 255 then blood vessels, their boundaries and lung boundaries are clearly visible as shown below. 67 255 Thick boundary of blood vessels

98 255

Shear Blood vessels Boundary

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617 https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG

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It is observed that traditionally the lungs examined by medical practitioner is not so easy task but by the image processing techniques, it helps the medical practitioner to not only better examine the patient but also give better and efficient results.

5 CONCLUSION & FUTURE WORK

Medical imaging is already a grown-up field and being vastly used in several medical fields. Many doctors and surgeons in the world identify the abnormalities on the behalf of the anatomical features of the human body. To enhance and improve their experience with medical images many software has been built and still research is on the trails. The objective of our research is to extract and enhance the certain features of interest; presented in lungs images to provide better observation and examination, which may otherwise be neglected from a human eye. We have discussed a SEDM method which extracts the lungs region of interest (ROI), and anatomical features are extracted using digital image processing techniques for better visual inspection by filtering and/or enhancing certain portions of the lungs. The accuracy measure is good but it will be increased in future. In addition, our method makes effective use of object oriented techniques to extract certain portions of the lungs into labeled objects and provides filtering and better observation of different objects of the lungs. Several processes have already been applied to achieve this current methodology and it is still in progress, so that maximum accuracy can be achieved in future research.

G. Tristan, J. Montagnat and I.E.Magnin Creais, Texture based medical image indexing and retrieval: application to cardiac imaging In Proc. of the 6th ACM SIGGM Int. workshop on Multimedia information retrieval P. 135 - 142 , NY, USA [10] A. El-Bazl, A.A. Farag, R. Falk, R. La Rocca. Automatic identification of lung abnormalities in chest spiral CT scans In Proc.of ieee Inl.conf.ICASSP 03, 2003, Vol.2. p.261-264.

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