2017 3rd International Conference on Science and Technology - Computer (ICST)

Lung Detection using

Adaptive Border Correction

Rizki Nurfauzi, Hanung Adi Nugroho, Igi Ardiyanto

Department of Electrical and Information Engineering
University of Gajah Mada
Indonesia
rizki.nurfauzi@mail.ugm.ac.id, adinugroho@ugm.ac.id, igi@ugm.ac.id

Abstract—Juxta-pleural is one of the lung nodules types that There are several methods that have been used to extract the
attached to the chest wall and has the same intensity. The presence lung with automatically. Most of the researchers used a method
of this type of nodules can be a mistake in lung segmentation. We based on gray-scale thresholding [13] such as [14] [15] [16].
propose a method for lung segmentation with bidirectional peak Although the thresholding method can extract the lung
detection method that gives the result of lung border to be a parenchyma, but frequent errors happen when there are Juxta-
solution to the problem. The method we propose has been tested pleural or Juxta-vascular nodules [17]. It is important to note that
with 140 3D CT images from ILDC-IDRI dataset which only Juxta-pleural is one kind of lung tumor based on its position that
contains juxta-pleural and juxta-vascular nodules, result shows attached to the chest wall and has some similarities in intensity.
only 14.3% of under-segmentation. We have compared with
Creating the algorithm to solve this problem is a challenge.
another two methods which are Morphological Closing and
Adaptive Border Marching (ABM). The proposed method [2][18] Using a method of morphology rolling-ball to correct
achieved the fastest computation level at 0.18 sec/slice or three the lung border of a lung that presents Juxta-pleural nodules. In
times faster than the speed of morphological methods (0.56 order to rolling-ball method works well in correcting the lung
sec/slice) and 40 times faster than the speed of ABM method (7.12 border, it must determine the appropriate size of the kernel
sec/slice). The propose method has potential to be implemented in rolling-ball [19]. When the kernel size is too small it results in
embedded systems. under-segmentation, and the opposite, when the kernel is too
large then the computation will increase and will result in over-
Keyword—CAD; lung nodules; segmentation; border refinement
segmentation.
I. INTRODUCTION
The result of the research in National Lung Screening Trial
(NLST) states that the screened using low-dose CT may reduce
the number of deaths caused by cancer [1]. CT-scan imaging is
one of the tools that have a high sensitivity in diagnosing such
as lung nodule detection [2][3][4] and can also be used to
analyze the airway [5].
a b
A radiologist accuracy in analyzing the patient data is a
challenge. Tumors that have a high potential for malignancy
level should not be overlooked in the results of the screening
radiologist. Things that occur in fault diagnosis allows the
radiologist to analyze patient data, such as fatigue [6][7][8],
disruption and satisfaction of search results [9]. So, the role of
computer-aided detection (CAD) is that to become a help to
reduce it. Creating the CAD has to follow the rules of the
c d
radiologist in identifying nodules and the latest research Fig. 1. Category of lung tumors based on position: (a) well-
[10][11]. circumscribed nodule; (b) juxta-vascular nodules; c) nodule with
pleural tail; and (d) juxta-pleural [12]
There are several types of lung tumors. The lung tumor can
be categorized based on the density and position of the tumor.
There are three types of lung tumor based on the density: solid, Another solution proposed by [17] using Adaptive Marching
semi-solid and non-solid [8]. The category which based on the Border (ABM). The basic concept is to connect each pixel of the
position of lung tumor divided into four types: (a) well- lung border, and segmented using thresholding method. It is able
circumscribed nodule; (b) juxta-vascular nodules; (C) nodule to correct the curved sections into an area of the lung that can be
with pleural tail; and (d) juxta-pleural [12] as in Fig. 1. caused by juxta-pleural nodules. Considering the extent of the
lung (Axial slice) that leads to the center of the chest position,

978-1-5386-1874-5/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 2017 3rd International Conference on Science and Technology - Computer (ICST)
the more extensive areas of the lung, it causes higher
computation which takes longer.
We propose an algorithm based on [17]. The proposed
algorithm is looking for the features of local minima and local
maxima in each bi-directional coordinates of the lung border. In
this paper, we present the comparison result in comparing the
computation speed and under-segmentation region (percentage)
between proposed method and another two methods which has
been explained above.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
A. Dataset
We use 140 3D CT images (only containing the Juxta-pleural
and Juxta-vascular nodules) from ILDC-IDRI dataset, which
includes annotation by radiologist [20]. Ground truth provided
by the radiologist only on large-sized nodules (diameter 3-
30mm) as shows in Fig. 2. There are some other radiologist
annotation, such as [21]: malignancy, subtlety, internal
structure, calcification, sphericity, margin, lobulation,
speculation, and texture. The records of annotation are stored in
.XML extension.
Fig. 2. juxta-pleural nodules on LIDC-IDRI dataset, which is annotated by
4 radiologists.
B. The proposed method
1) Preprocessing
At this stage, we are working to eliminate the shape of the
patient's bed mat using thresholding and morphological
techniques. The step may also to make clearer border of chest to
eliminate the artifact by surgical wounds. Preprocessing result
shows in Fig. 3.
a b c determines the connection of two feature points. While is a
Fig. 3. One of the data that has been processed on preprocessing stage,
(a) The original image, (b) mesh chest of the result of thresholding and
morphological filling, (c) preprocessing results.
2) Lung border tracking
There are several steps in the lung detection. We use Otsu
thresholding technique as the first step to extract the lung
region[22]. Lung border can be calculated using tracking
algorithms in the lung region [23]. The results of the lung border
are the arrangement of the edge coordinates (X, Y) in the lung
region. The arrangement is based on tracking direction, here we
use the clockwise direction. Lung border tracking also
distinguish areas that are not interconnected, as is the show in
Fig. 4.
a b
Fig. 4. (a). the results of lung segmentation using Otsu thresholding.
(b) separation of each region using border tracking.
3) Peak detection
The novelty of our method is we using the feature extraction
of peak detection in each coordinate. We wish to speed up the
computation time. To find the local minima and maxima of the
X coordinate of the lung border we use the first derivative, also
for Y coordinate. Pixel at local minima and local maxima
possibly is more than one pixel, so we have to find the end of
the pixel. The analogy for feature of peak detection is described
in Fig. 5. The result of the feature of peak detection in the x and
y coordinates depicted in Fig. 6c.
Fig. 5. A green dot shows the features of the detection of local
minima and maxima
4) Adaptive correction
After getting the features of local minima-maxima in X and
Y coordinate, then we have to connect each feature. Each
connection point of the feature is determined by the results of
SVM classification. SVM classification is used to avoid the
connection point of the feature that causes over-segmentation
and under-segmentation. It has been used as a correction for the
Adaptive Matching Border (ABM)[17]. Adaptive correction
model is shown in Fig. 7. Where W is the Euclidean distance
between two feature points, and Hmax is the highest value that
constant which the value should be determined. In this
experiment, we use = 0.5 based on the equation (1). In this
experiment, W defined as the maximum distance radius nodules
(30mm)
(1)
=
 2017 3rd International Conference on Science and Technology - Computer (ICST)
a b
c d
Fig. 6. The process of searching for local feature min-max
bidirectional, a) the incorporation illustrations of feature points X
and Y, b) the selection of features that make the connection, c) the
results of the left lung which has selected connection. d) the overall
results have been improved surface region with closing kernel
morphology [3,3].
Fig. 7 a generic models to avoid over-segmentation [17]
C. Testing dataset
In this experiment, we have tested the proposed method
with the data 140 3D CT images (only containing the Juxta-
pleural and Juxta-vascular nodules) of ILDC-LIDR dataset.
Ground truth provided in ILDC-LIDR database only containing
nodules with a diameter 3-30mm. So, we only use ground truth
data that was already available. To evaluate the results of our
test, we use the percentage of nodule pixels that are missing or
pixel that under-segmented compare to the ground truth.
With the same data, we test other method that has been
proposed by previous researcher [17] and morphological
closing/rolling-ball method that proposed by [2][18]. In this
experiment, we use the morphological closing with kernel 'disk'
[ , ], with obtained through the equation (2). . is
the maximum radius of nodule (30mm).
. the lung segmentation
(2)
=
. The few things that need to be done in the future, first one
III. RESULT AND CONCLUSION
The comparison result using 140 3D CT images summarized
in Table 1 and the experiment result of one slice depicted in Fig.
8.
Fig. 8 the results of comparative tests on one slice where the green line
shows the segmentation results using the method we propose, the red line
results using morphological, the blue line is the result of ABM algorithms.
TABLE I. THE RESULT
Method
Proposed Morphological ABM
method closing [2][18] [17]
Under- 14.3 15.6 11.1
segmentation (%)
Speed (sec/slice) 0.18 0.56 7.12
The result shows, the proposed method achieved the fastest
computation level at 0.18 sec/slice or three times faster than
the speed of morphological methods (0.56 sec/slice) and 40
times faster than the speed of ABM method (7.12 sec/slice).
IV. DISCUSSION
From the above results, the proposed method achieves the
fastest computation level than others. The proposed method has
resulted 14.3% under-segmentation of the Juxta-pleural and
Juxta-vascular nodules, the ABM method [17] reached 11.1%,
and with morphological reached 15.6%. ABM method was
superior in covering the nodule, but the proposed method is
better than morphological methods. Under-segmentation occurs
because there are nodules in a difficult position in
segmentation, as shown in Fig. 9.
Thus, based on the result of level computation, the propose
method has potential to be implemented in embedded systems.
Fig. 9. one of the positions that are difficult to excluded nodules in
is to add more comparison criteria, not only computation speed
and under-segmentation, but also how many false positives
occur. Second, using more data because results may different
accords to number of data and finally, the third one is to use
adaptive thresholding to anticipate the significant difference in
the intensity of the CT-scan recording.
 2017 3rd International Conference on Science and Technology - Computer (ICST)
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