Fractal texture analysis in computer-aided diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The authors investigated the use of fractal texture characterization to improve the accuracy of solitary pulmonary nodule computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems. METHODS: Thirty chest radiographs were acquired from patients who had no pulmonary nodules. Thirty regions were selected that were considered remotely suspicious-looking for nodules. Artificial nodules of multiple shapes, sizes, and orientations were added at subtle levels of contrast to 30 non-suspicious-looking regions of the radiographs. Fractal dimensions of the 60 "nodule candidates" were calculated to quantify the texture of each region. Four radiologists also interpreted the images. RESULTS: The fractal dimension of each possible nodule provided statistically significant (P < .05) differentiation between regions that contained an artificial nodule and those that did not. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the fractal analysis was significantly better (P < .05) than that for the radiologists. CONCLUSION: Fractal texture characterization provides useful information for the classification of potential solitary pulmonary nodules with CAD algorithms.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Vittitoe, NF; Baker, JA; Floyd, CE
Published Date
- February 1997
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 4 / 2
Start / End Page
- 96 - 101
PubMed ID
- 9061081
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 1076-6332
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1016/s1076-6332(97)80005-0
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States