IEEE - ICSCN 2007, MIT Campus, Anna University, Chennai, India. Feb. 22-24, 2007. pp.483-487.

Evaluation of Tissue Characteristics of Kidney for Diagnosis and Classification Using First Order Statistics and RTS Invariants
K. Bommanna Raja', M. Madheswaran2 and K.
Abstract: Analysis of abdominal ultrasound kidney images is made to evaluate the tissue characteristic for implementing unbiased diagnosis procedure and to classify important kidney orders. A set of features are estimated by quantifying spatial gray level distribution using first order statistics and algebraic moment invariants. The images are acquired from male and female subjects of age 45+15 years and are pre-processed prior to feature extraction. The results obtained show that six features out of fifteen are highly significant (p<0.0005) in discriminating inter class I and III, compared to inter class II which shows significant performance (p<0.002). The second order polynomial regression analysis is also performed to measure the data stability against kidney area. The study reveals that derived features are efficient for tissue characterization of kidney which further enhance the objective diagnosis and help for designing computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system.
I. INTRODUCTION

Thyagarajahl

methodologies. If any such features that define the functional characteristic of kidney could be estimated, realizing CAD system exclusively for US kidney image is made practicable. With such system it is possible to (i). Establish a quantitative universal reference for the US kidney images, (ii). Implement image retrieval in medical application (IRMA) system, (iii). Make comparative study on images for better decision making, (iv). Develop an expert system that automatically recognizes the extent of pathology or normality, (v). Examine extent of healing or failure under post-therapy observation The major limiting factor in defining kidney characteristic using CAD is presence of multiplicative speckle noise. When it become apparent the interpretation of kidney boundary is difficult even with visual inspection by the experts. This is evident as most of the work on US kidney images deals with the segmentation of the kidney using various methodologies [7-12]. Though the performance of the methods in finding boundary is well appreciated, they fail to formulate the generalized scheme by considering various category of kidney. Unless a common method of boundary detection irrespective of kidney category exits, the designing of a CAD system is not possible. The authors formulated a higher order spline interpolation after up sampling of homogeneous distributed coordinate segmentation scheme (i-HSIC) to achieve boundary for different kidney category [13]. This method helps to retain the pixels of interest (POI) that preserve functional characteristic of the kidney. Followed by the contouring, the images are rotated to zero degree reference axis and background subtracted to retain the pixels of interest (POI). In Fig. 1 the steps involved in preprocessing are shown.
II. MATERIAL AND METHODS

[5,6].

Diagnosis of diseases and disorders using certain imaging modalities afflicting human expert has always been a probable candidate that demands automation. The ultrasound (US) imaging allows faster and more accurate procedures due to its real time capabilities which finds wide spread application in diagnosing soft tissue organs [1,2]. But, in general, US image analysis is complex due to data composition which is described in terms of speckle formation [3]. Speckle consist of a relatively high gray level intensity [4], qualitatively ranging between hyper echoic to hypo echoic domain. Inherently the presence of this noise restricts the extraction of content descriptive features and hence the of implementation computer-aided diagnosing
Centre for Research and Development, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, PSNA College of Engineering and Technology, Dindigul - 624 622, Tamil Nadu, INDIA Centre for Advanced Research, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Muthayammal College of Engineering, Rasipuram- 637 408, Tamil Nadu, INDIA Email:bommanna raja 4yahoo.com, Email:contact dWpsnacet.org, madhi_eswaran dgyahoo.co.in

A. Image data collection The images are acquired by using two types of scanning systems namely ATL HDI 5000 curvilinear probe with transducer frequency of 5 - 6 MHz and WiproGE LOGIC 400 curvilinear probe with transducer frequency 3 - 5 MHz. The longitudinal cross section of the kidney is taken by fixing the transducer frequency at 4 MHz. The overall gain is set at optimal value during each acquisition to get uniform

1-4244-0997-7/07/$25.00 2007 IEEE

483

Evaluation of Tissue Characteristics ofKidneyfor Diagnosis and Classification using First Order Statistics and RTS Invariants

visibility of the image. Three kidney categories namely normal (NR), medical renal diseases (MRD) and cortical cyst (CC) are considered for the analysis. In each class 50 images are obtained. In total 150 images are pre-processed before feature extraction. The necessary care has been taken to preserve the shape, size and gray-level distribution as it obliterates the sonographic content of information.
III. FEATURE EXTRACTION

identification [16 -18]. The classic technique for generating invariants in terms of algebraic moments was originally proposed by Hu [18]. If u(m,n) is discrete input image, the algebraic moments is given by,
mpq

mPnqu(m, n) = E E
m n

(9)

A. First order gray level statisticalfeatures If u(m,n) is the discrete image and 'NR' is the total number of pixels in kidney region 9j. The first order gray level statistical features mean (Imean), dispersion (Idispersion), variance (lvar), average energy (lave. energy), skewness (Iskew), kurtosis (Ikurt), median (Imedian) and mode (Imode) are estimated as [14, 15],

Here a fixed number of lower order moments for each pixel in the image (p+q < 3) are computed. Usually moment invariants are specified in terms of normalized central moments, 1Zpq which is given by,
Ipq

P00

yq

(10)

where,

jUpq
mi=nl

ZZ (m-m-)P(n
m n

n)u(m,n)

(1 1)
(12)

Imean (k, 1) =

NR
I

m nc3?

E[u(m-k, n-1)]
nc%

(1)
(2)

moo

and

m+ o

moi

idispersion (k, 1) N E
NR
m

u(m-k, n-)-MI1 (k, 1)

ivar (k, I) = N

NR

E?

[u(m -k, n -) M1 (k, 1)]2

1

(3)

iave.energy (k,l)= 1
Iskew (k, 1)
ku,rt

Y[u(m -k,n _1)]2 E1

(4)
(5) (6)

1 NR

EL [u(m - k, n 1) Ml (k, f)] 1

m

(13) ....... 2 = is A set of seven RTS invariant features s calculated for the kidney images using the equation (10) for normalized central moments. Each 5 in the expression provides a value for one moment invariant. Seven such values are obtained. The detail of algebraic expressions for 4 may be referred in [14].
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3, y/= p+q +l for p+q=2,3

nE

mN n.d NR m n E31

I [u(m -knn-

Ml (k,l)]

If the intensity values I(k,l) of u(m,n) are arranged in ascending order, then

'median =I(k,1) of N +1th pixel

2

(7)

in case of even 'N', the median value is estimated by finding the average of two middle values. If h(xi) is the histogram of the image that gives the number of pixels with gray levels xi, then

imode J(k, I)of max{h(x, } I

(8)

B. Algebraic moment invariants Moment invariants are properties of connected region that are invariant to rotation, translation and scale (RTS). They define a simply calculated set of region properties that can be used for shape classification, part recognition and class

processed image obtained has well defined shape, orientation and structure. Now any feature that could be derived will illustrate the tissue characteristic of kidney. The quantitative measures of the derived 15 features are enumerated in Table 1. The mean value of each feature is determined and it has been given for all kidney classes. The potential of feature in identifying the category is verified statistically by student ttest using 'p' value. The result attained for first order gray level statistical features shows that the features Imean, 'ave. energy, Imedian and Imode are very highly significant (p<1.68E-07, 2.20E-05 and

procedure, the POI are retained to make derived features in specific describe the sonographic content. The output pre-

In general kidney is anatomically and sonographically identified by its elliptical representation. In Fig. 1 it can be seen that the presence of hyper echoic speckle patterns surrounding the kidney region hinders the contouring process. As mentioned, by means of pre-processing

484

IEEE-ICSCN, Feb. 2007

Table 1: Quantitative Validation of Extracted Features From US Kidney Images

Imean

Idispersion
Ivar lave. energy

NR 79.33 17.53 536.66 6960.11

Mean MRD 97.14

t-test (p < x)

cc
67.63

13.50 379.70
9865.48

15.68 436.68
5044.97

1.68E-07 4. 1 OE-04 2.23E-03

2.38E-08

I*

II*
2.20E-05 2.99E-02

III*
5.47E-1 6

1.61E-02
1.77E-06

'skew Ikurt

Imedian
'mode

2683.19 1217994.62 71.86

68.27

-6740.48

1169927.69 91.45
96.04

2535.97 842965.00
56.77 61.62

2.85E-05 3.86E-0 I 1.48E-08

4.54E-07

4.67E-0 I
2.32E-03
3.22E-06 5.58E-02

(pI

0.98
6.70

0.60
7.22

1.03
6.44

5.19E-05
4.98E-04

1.52E-03
2.58E-03

1.06E-02 4.59E-02 3.42E-15 9.00E-07 7.70E-03 2.69E-1 3 1.07E-12 5.35E-04

7.64E-04

92

93 94 [ 95
96
[ 97

8.55 0.27 5.50

4.68

9.31 1.00 7.14

5.69

8.16 0.44 5.07

4.42

5.OOE-04 3.99E-04 9.87E-05

7.37E-04

2.49E-03 1.O1E-02 2.55E-03

2.60E-02

5.67E-04 5.60E-04 9.75E-05

5.13E-04

4.73 6.65 4.16 5.22E-04 Inter Group I (NR- MRD) ; Inter Group II (NR- CC); Inter Group III (MRD - CC)

1.25E-02

5.22E-05

5.47E-16 for Imean ; p<2.38E-08, 1.77E-06 and 3.42E-15 for 'ave. energy; p<l.48E-08, 3.22E-06 and 2.69E-13 for Imedian) in discriminating the kidney category. This followed by 'dispersion and Ivar which are highly significant. The feature Iskew is very highly significant in differentiating inter group I (NR and MRD) and III (MRD and CC). It becomes less significant (p<4.67E-01) in classifying inter group II (NR and CC). Similarly the feature Ikurt fails for inter group I (p<3.85E-01). The feature Imode is very highly significant for group I and III when compared to group II which shows 950 significant difference in mean values. This analysis indicate that the features imean, 'ave. energy, Imedian and Imode provide acceptable discrimination potential and can be used for diagnosis. The algebraic moment invariant features 4, and 45 shows very high significant value (p<5. 19E-05, 1 .52E-03 and 5.35E-04 for 4,; 9.87E-05, 2.55E-03 and 9.75E-05 for 45). Also 42 and 43 perform well with a significant level of very high (p<4.98E-04, 2.58E-03 and 7.64E-04 for 42; p<5.OOE04, 2.49E-03, and 5.67E-04 for 43)4 It can be seen other moment invariants perform equally well for inter group I and Ill. From the obtained moment invariant features 4, and 45 are considered in specific for analysis because of their increased confident level. The 5-by-I moment invariant ratio (451 1) is defined between 45 and 4,. Using four dominant first order statistical features and this ratio a two-dimensional feature space is created to study the distribution of feature patterns in this sub-space. The Fig. 2 shows the various
485

cluster patterns formed for three kidney classes. It can be seen that Imean, Imedian and 'ave. energy in association with 5-by-I moment invariant ratio, the abnormal kidney categories MRD and CC (inter group III) are well separated to make a decision boundary between the class. Also appreciable separation is observed between NR and MRD (inter group I) and NR and CC (inter group II). Hence these features play a vital role in diagnosis and classification. The shortcoming of Imode performance in association 5-by-I moment invariant ratio is because of the definition of mode that gives the information about most occurred pixel intensity in kidney region. Though it provide clear separation between inter group I and III, they fail for inter group II as most of pixel intensities other than cystic region are same as that of normal. They may provide better class separation for larger cyst where fluid filled mass gets spread in entire renal sinus and medullary region. As the dimension of the kidney area varies for subjects even after the pre-processing (re-sizing of the image will devastate the tissue characteristic), it become necessary to cross validate the stability of dominant feature values with respect to change in kidney area. A second order polynomial regression analysis is performed for this purpose and result obtained are shown Table 2. The estimated R-squared value for all the features indicate little association (0.0123 0.0800), hence it can be inferred that the features are almost independent of kidney area. Such independency is highly expected because as kidney area varies the values of these

Evaluation of Tissue Characteristics ofKidneyfor Diagnosis and Classification using First Order Statistics and RTS Invariants
120.00 110.00
100.00
C/, l_ a)

_
*_
E

100.00 90.00

90.00

* It* *

**

80.00
a)

4*

Q0 .E_

80.00 70.00 60.00 50.00 40.00

30.00

70.00
60.00 50.00
AA

EEl

~* El'
:X

.
U

stA *

x
0

A.

40.00
30.00

20.00 10.00 0.00o 0.0000

120.00 110.00 >, 100.00 Ul) 90.00 -_ 80.00 70.00 .a_ 60.00 50.00 40.00 30.00 20.00 10.00 0.00 0.0000
-1-

A CC~~~~C

20.00
10.00
0.00 0.0000

* Normal * MRD A& CC

5.0000

10.0000

15.0000

20.0000

25.OOOC

5.0000

10.0000

15.0000

20.0000

25.0000

5-by-I moment invariant ratio (D51)

*

5-by-I moment invariant ratio ((51)

13000.00

*El

12000.00
Ul)
U,

**. .
A,A
#
AA

IRS
* Normal
*
A

11000.00

10000.00

UU)
.40

9000.00 8000.00 7000.00

.
*
-

**
A- A
* Normal
*

6000.00 5000.00 4000.00

a) a1)

3000.00

MRD CC

2000.00 1000.00
0.00

MRD CC

5.0000

10.0000

15.0000

20.0000

25.0

0.0000

5.0000

10.0000

15.0000

20.0000

25.0000

5-by-I moment invariant ratio (D51)

5-by-I moment invariant ratio (P51)

Fig. 2. Two-dimensional mapping of feature values to formulate cluster patterns for defining decision boundary

features in turn vary which may lead to overlapping of category.

Table 2: R2 Values between Extracted Features and Kidney Area Measured in Number of Pixels and the Corresponding Second Order Polynomial Regression Equation

8.0562
V. CONCLUSION

Features

Imean

R-squared value R 0.0444

R2
R 0.0123

'median
'mode

0.0800
0.0627

'ave. energy
91

R R R

0.0715
0.0780

95

Regression equation y = 2E-08x2 - 0.0016x + 106.63 y = 2E-08x2 - 0.0013x + 9 1.875 = 3E-08x2 - 0.0027x + y 118.43 y = IE-05x2 - 0.5551x + 14519 y -9E-I lx2 + 2E-05x + 0.4692 y IE-09x2 - 0.OOOlx +
486

A reliable method for diagnosing and classifying the US kidney images is developed and implemented using first order statistical and algebraic moment invariant features. These features highly depict the characteristic of kidney and shows promising performance in classification of kidney images as normal, medical renal diseases and cortical cyst. The developed method not only helps in classification also extends its potential in realization of automated CAD system. Based on these numerical values of features it is highly possible to: develop a universal reference for kidney categories, analyze the image to measure the extent of pathology and make decision by comparative study. Also this explores the possibility of implementing IRMA system in particular for US kidney images.

IEEE-ICSCN, Feb. 2007

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