Lung nodule pre-diagnosis and insertion path planning for chest CT images.
BMC Med Imaging
; 23(1): 22, 2023 02 03.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36737717
ABSTRACT
Medical image processing has proven to be effective and feasible for assisting oncologists in diagnosing lung, thyroid, and other cancers, especially at early stage. However, there is no reliable method for the recognition, screening, classification, and detection of nodules, and even deep learning-based methods have limitations. In this study, we mainly explored the automatic pre-diagnosis of lung nodules with the aim of accurately identifying nodules in chest CT images, regardless of the benign and malignant nodules, and the insertion path planning of suspected malignant nodules, used for further diagnosis by robotic-based biopsy puncture. The overall process included lung parenchyma segmentation, classification and pre-diagnosis, 3-D reconstruction and path planning, and experimental verification. First, accurate lung parenchyma segmentation in chest CT images was achieved using digital image processing technologies, such as adaptive gray threshold, connected area labeling, and mathematical morphological boundary repair. Multi-feature weight assignment was then adopted to establish a multi-level classification criterion to complete the classification and pre-diagnosis of pulmonary nodules. Next, 3-D reconstruction of lung regions was performed using voxelization, and on its basis, a feasible local optimal insertion path with an insertion point could be found by avoiding sternums and/or key tissues in terms of the needle-inserting path. Finally, CT images of 900 patients from Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative were chosen to verify the validity of pulmonary nodule diagnosis. Our previously designed surgical robotic system and a custom thoracic model were used to validate the effectiveness of the insertion path. This work can not only assist doctors in completing the pre-diagnosis of pulmonary nodules but also provide a reference for clinical biopsy puncture of suspected malignant nodules considered by doctors.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Nódulo Pulmonar Solitario
/
Nódulos Pulmonares Múltiples
/
Neoplasias Pulmonares
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
BMC Med Imaging
Asunto de la revista:
DIAGNOSTICO POR IMAGEM
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
China