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Segmentation of breast ultrasound images based on active contours using neutrosophic theory

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Abstract

Purpose

Ultrasound imaging is an effective approach for diagnosing breast cancer, but it is highly operator-dependent. Recent advances in computer-aided diagnosis have suggested that it can assist physicians in diagnosis. Definition of the region of interest before computer analysis is still needed. Since manual outlining of the tumor contour is tedious and time-consuming for a physician, developing an automatic segmentation method is important for clinical application.

Methods

The present paper represents a novel method to segment breast ultrasound images. It utilizes a combination of region-based active contour and neutrosophic theory to overcome the natural properties of ultrasound images including speckle noise and tissue-related textures. First, due to inherent speckle noise and low contrast of these images, we have utilized a non-local means filter and fuzzy logic method for denoising and image enhancement, respectively. This paper presents an improved weighted region-scalable active contour to segment breast ultrasound images using a new feature derived from neutrosophic theory.

Results

This method has been applied to 36 breast ultrasound images. It generates true-positive and false-positive results, and similarity of 95%, 6%, and 90%, respectively.

Conclusion

The purposed method indicates clear advantages over other conventional methods of active contour segmentation, i.e., region-scalable fitting energy and weighted region-scalable fitting energy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Mahsa Lotfollahi

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran

    Mahsa Lotfollahi & A. Mahlooji Far

  3. The Radiology Department, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

    Masoumeh Gity

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Jing Yong Ye

Authors
  1. Mahsa Lotfollahi
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  2. Masoumeh Gity
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  3. Jing Yong Ye
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  4. A. Mahlooji Far
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mahsa Lotfollahi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical statements

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later versions.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Lotfollahi, M., Gity, M., Ye, J.Y. et al. Segmentation of breast ultrasound images based on active contours using neutrosophic theory. J Med Ultrasonics 45, 205–212 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-017-0811-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-017-0811-8

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