Magnetic Resonance Imaging For Early Detection Of Brain Tumour

Made Possible Using Edge Detection And Automated segmentation

R.RAJ ESHREE And S.PREETHI
R.M.K.College Of Engg. And Tech., ECE-IV
Year

A tumour is an abnormal growth
caused by cells reproducing themselves in
an uncontrolled manner. The reason why
brain tumours occur remains a mystery (as
research into environmental and genetic
factors is limited) so there is no way to
predict who will get brain tumour.Earlier
detection of brain metastases is critical for
improved treatment. Annually brain Cancer
accounts for 189000 new cases and 142000
death. Various image modalities are
available for acquisition of image of
detected region. The image obtained using
these modalities must be processed in order
to enhance its appearance and get clear idea
about the kind of disease.First line screening
will thus help in categorizing patients based
on their difficulty level and give an
economical solution to the diagnosis of
tumor for weaker section. For this screening,
we have first edge detected the image,
identified the ROI and then verified the
presence of tumor. This ROI is then used to
classify the tumor type as benign or
malignant. The depth of tumor cells, which
is proportional to the area of ROI, is also
calculated. Thus First line screening will
provide a solution to the economical burden
of diseased people and the social burden of
medical practitioner. In our work, edge
detection technique is used for detecting the
tumor region in the brain image. Region of
Interest (ROI) is then detected using edge
analysis. Threshold based segmentation is
finally done to enhance the tumor affected
region in the non-contrast enhanced MRI
images.
Introduction:
Life threatening brain tumour:
A brain tumor, or tumour, is an
intracranial solid neoplasm, a tumor
(defined as an abnormal growth of cells)
within the brain or the central spinal canal.

Any brain tumor is inherently serious and
life-threatening because of its invasive and
infiltrative character in the limited space of
the intracranial cavity. However, brain
tumors (even malignant ones) are not
invariably fatal, especially lipomas which
are inherently benign. Brain tumors or
intracranial neoplasms can be cancerous
(malignant) or non-cancerous (benign);
however, the definitions of malignant or
benign neoplasms differs from those
commonly used in other types of cancerous
or non-cancerous neoplasms in the body. Its
threat level depends on the combination of
factors like the type of tumor, its location, its
size and its state of development. Because
the brain is well protected by the skull, the
early detection of a brain tumor occurs only
when diagnostic tools are directed at the
intracranial cavity. Usually detection occurs
in advanced stages when the presence of the
tumor has caused unexplained symptoms.
Primary (true) brain tumors are commonly
located in the posterior cranial fossa in
children and in the anterior two-thirds of the
cerebral hemispheres in adults, although
they can affect any part of the brain.
Need for smart diagnosis:
The shortage of radiologists and
large volume of MRI to be analyzed make
such medical image readings labor intensive
and cost expensive. In dealing with human
life, the results of human analysis involving
false negative cases must be at a very low
rate. This case is less probable. Further, it
has been proven that double reading of
medical images could lead to better tumor
detection. But the cost implied in double
reading is very high, thats why smart
diagnosis to assist human in medical
institution is of great interest nowadays.
Due to large number of patients in
Intensive Care Units and the need for
continuous observer of such conditions,
several techniques for automated
diagnostic system have been developed in
recent years to attempt to solve this
problem. Such techniques work by
transforming the mostly qualitative
diagnostic criteria into quantitative feature
classification problem.
Techniques used:
Several technological advances have been
developed which improve the quality and
efficacy of brain tumor surgery. Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners
differentiate various soft tissues, and
functional MRI (fMRI) or Positron Emission
Tomography (PET) acquire functional
information modality. These
assistant diagnostic devices are much
helpful for the doctor during disease
diagnosis and treatment, as well as
decreasing the invasive pain of the patient.
In our work, edge detection
technique is used for detecting the tumor
region in the brain image. Region of Interest
(ROI) is then detected using edge analysis.
Threshold based segmentation is finally
done to enhance the tumor affected region
in the non-contrast enhanced MRI images.
To check the validity of proposed
method, MATLAB Version-7.6.0.324
(R2008a) is used.


ALGORITHM:


















Preprocessing of MR image:
SKULL STRIPPING is a preprocessing
method used to remove the unwanted non-
brain tissues from the MR image. By skull
removal we will get rid of the outer elliptical
part in the image which avoids chance of
misclassification. The steps involved in skull
removal are
1. Find the size of the image and store
it in separate variables.
2. Observe the range of gray values in
the skull region.
3. Perform iteration for changing all
the gray values in the skull region to
black.
4. Repeat the steps 2 & 3 if the result is
not accurate.


CONTOUR DETECTION:
In this method ,a new contour
detection method is studied for
detecting brain tumour regions
based on their gradient magnitude
information.Gradient magnitude
data is generated from brain slice
image intensity or perceived
brightness information.Contour map
of the brain tumor is generated by
using gradient magnitude
differences of the template masks
SKULL STRIPPING
PREPROCESSING
READ IMAGE
DATABASE
POSTPROCESSING
CONTOUR DETECTION
FIRST LEVEL
DECISION
TUMOR REGION
IDENTIFICATION
*AREA CALCULATION
*THRESHOLDING
SECOND LEVEL
DECISION
and sample masks raw pixel and
perceived brightness or
luminance.Then this differencies are
averaged and normalized to produce
edges profiles of the brain tumor
region contours.This data is used by
the remote surgical devices for
removing the tumor area.
ROI EXTRACTION:
The tumor region is extracted from
the original image. This ROI is used for Area
calculation. The ROI is first identified using
the contour map and then its location in the
original image is detected. This information
about the location is used to extract the
tumor region from the entire image. The
mean value of the pixels in this region is
evaluated which approximates to the area
of the brain tumor.



Automated Segmentation:

An automated brain tumor
segmentation method was
developed and validated against
manual segmentation with three-
dimensional magnetic resonance
images in 20 patients with
meningiomas and low-grade
gliomas. General segmentation
framework.We adopted a general
algorithm called adaptive template
moderated classification .The
technique involves the iteration of
statistical classification to assign
labels to tissue types and nonlinear
registration to align (register) a
digital anatomic atlas
(presegmented anatomic map) to
the patient data. Statistical
classification was used to divide an
image into different tissue classes
on the basis of the signal intensity
value. If different tissue classes have
the same or overlapping grey-value
distributions (eg, cerebrospinal fluid
and fluid within the eyeballs), such
methods fail. Therefore, additional
information about the spatial
location of anatomic structures was
derived from a registered anatomic
atlas (manually segmented MR
image of a single subject). Objects of
interest were identified on the
classified images with local
segmentation operations
(mathematic morphology and region
growing)




threshold algorithm can be used to extract
the intracranial area from the enhanced
images. Due to complex structures of
different tissues such as the gray matter
(GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal
fluid (CSF) in the MR images, extraction of
useful features is challenging task.
Variability in tumor location, shape, size,
and texture properties further
complications the search for robust
features. Intensity is an important feature
in segmenting tumor from other tissues in
the brain. This intensity information is taken
as the key factor in our method. The mean
pixel value of the tumor region is taken as
the threshold level for segmentation. The
steps involved are
1. Calculate the mean of the tumor
region.
2. Set this mean value as threshold
level (T).
3. The pixels of image with intensity
below T are converted to 0.
4. Those pixels with intensity above T
are made 1.
5. The white region thus represents the
tumor in the brain image.







Matlab coding:
Reading image:

>> f = imread (8. jpg);

For example,
>> f = imread (
D:\myimages\chestxray.jpg);
reads the image from a folder called my
images on the D: drive, whereas
>> f = imread( . \ myimages\chestxray
.jpg);
reads the image from the my images
subdirectory of the current of the
currentworking directory.

Function size gives the row and column
dimensions of an image:
>> size (f)
ans = 1024 * 1024

Displaying images:



imshow(f,g)
Where f is an image array, and g is the
number of intensity levels used
todisplay it. If g is omitted ,it defaults to 256
levels .
>>figure ,imshow(g)
Writing images:
>>imwrite(f,patient10_run1,tif)

consider the following use of
structure variable K to
commute thecompression ratio for
bubbles25.jpg:
>>K=imfinfo(bubbles25.jpg);
>> image_ bytes =K.Width*
K.Height* K.Bit Depth /8
;>> Compressed_ bytes = K.FilesSize;
>> Compression_ ratio=35.162
>>
res=round(200*2.25/1.5);>>imwrite(
f,sf.tif,compression,none,resolut
ion,res)

code=Dec2Binfar(Tcod8,DIFLcd)
function
code=Dec2Binfar(Tcod8,DIFLcd)
LT=length(Tcod8);
Lcd=LT*8-DIFLcd;
k=8;
for j=1:LT
for i=0:7
cd(k-
i)=fix(Tcod8(j)/(2^(7-i)));
if Tcod8(j)>=2^(7-i)

Tcod8(j)=Tcod8(j)-2^(7-i);
end;
end;
k=k+8;
end;
for i=1:Lcd
code(i)=cd(i);
end;




RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS:
The proposed method has been
applied for different brain images and the
tumor affected images are processed
further to enhance the tumor region alone.
The results obtained for different images
are shown below:
In figure1, the tumor affected image
is taken and the proposed method is
applied. Figure.1.A is the actual image.
Figure.1.B is the output image obtained
after skull removal. This image is devoid of
non brain tissues that are present in the
MRI. The skull stripping is employed so that
miss conclusion of tumor image can be
avoided. Figure.1.C represents the contour
map drawn based on the intensity variation
in the image. This map helps in classification
of the image by making the edges more
visible. Using all the information obtained,
Figure.1.D is generated based upon the
tumor area. This enhanced image makes
the tumor more visible making it suitable
for quick treatment and removal.





Figure1.A Original Image
Figure1.B After Skull
Stripping


Figure1.C Contour of
B Figure1.D
Enhanced Image
The original image is
also processed for better
understanding of the method
and the results of it are
Figure2.A
Original Image Figure2.B Skull Removed
Figure2.C Contour map
From the figure2.C its clearly
seen that no abnormality i.e. mass of
expected type is present which confirms the
absence of tumor. Thus the method
produces a considerable result for detection
of tumor from the brain MR images.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK:
The work in this research involves
classification of normal and abnormal brain
image and provides first line screening
which helps the patient to be directed to
the concerned physician. In this paper,
contour detection method is studied for
detecting tumor regions in brain images
which is based on the pixel intensities. Thus
image enhancement is done without using
contrast agent which proves very
advantageous. We intend to prove, this
technique will be cost effective and is more
economical.
Further work is required to extend
the tools to a broader range of brain tumors
(eg, glioblastoma multiforme). Future
clinical studies on the accuracy and
reproducibility of our technique in a larger
population will be necessary to determine
its practical use in a clinical setting. We also
try to make fully automated machine vision
identification which will help in getting
better result than that of human analysis.
REFERENCES

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013168728X

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growth and threshold techniques,
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4244-1355-3

3)Davis, L. S., "Edge detection techniques",
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