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Jean-Pascal Jacob, Mariella Dimiccoli, & Lionel Moisan. (2016). Active skeleton for bacteria modeling. CMBBE - Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging and Visualization, 5(4), 274–286.
Abstract: The investigation of spatio-temporal dynamics of bacterial cells and their molecular components requires automated image analysis tools to track cell shape properties and molecular component locations inside the cells. In the study of bacteria aging, the molecular components of interest are protein aggregates accumulated near bacteria boundaries. This particular location makes very ambiguous the correspondence between aggregates and cells, since computing accurately bacteria boundaries in phase-contrast time-lapse imaging is a challenging task. This paper proposes an active skeleton formulation for bacteria modeling which provides several advantages: an easy computation of shape properties (perimeter, length, thickness, orientation), an improved boundary accuracy in noisy images, and a natural bacteria-centered coordinate system that permits the intrinsic location of molecular components inside the cell. Starting from an initial skeleton estimate, the medial axis of the bacterium is obtained by minimizing an energy function which incorporates bacteria shape constraints. Experimental results on biological images and comparative evaluation of the performances validate the proposed approach for modeling cigar-shaped bacteria like Escherichia coli. The Image-J plugin of the proposed method can be found online at this http URL
Keywords: Bacteria modelling; medial axis; active contours; active skeleton; shape contraints
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Laura Igual, Joan Carles Soliva, Antonio Hernandez, Sergio Escalera, Xavier Jimenez, Oscar Vilarroya, et al. (2011). A fully-automatic caudate nucleus segmentation of brain MRI: Application in volumetric analysis of pediatric attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. BEO - BioMedical Engineering Online, 10(105), 1–23.
Abstract: Background
Accurate automatic segmentation of the caudate nucleus in magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain is of great interest in the analysis of developmental disorders. Segmentation methods based on a single atlas or on multiple atlases have been shown to suitably localize caudate structure. However, the atlas prior information may not represent the structure of interest correctly. It may therefore be useful to introduce a more flexible technique for accurate segmentations.
Method
We present Cau-dateCut: a new fully-automatic method of segmenting the caudate nucleus in MRI. CaudateCut combines an atlas-based segmentation strategy with the Graph Cut energy-minimization framework. We adapt the Graph Cut model to make it suitable for segmenting small, low-contrast structures, such as the caudate nucleus, by defining new energy function data and boundary potentials. In particular, we exploit information concerning the intensity and geometry, and we add supervised energies based on contextual brain structures. Furthermore, we reinforce boundary detection using a new multi-scale edgeness measure.
Results
We apply the novel CaudateCut method to the segmentation of the caudate nucleus to a new set of 39 pediatric attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients and 40 control children, as well as to a public database of 18 subjects. We evaluate the quality of the segmentation using several volumetric and voxel by voxel measures. Our results show improved performance in terms of segmentation compared to state-of-the-art approaches, obtaining a mean overlap of 80.75%. Moreover, we present a quantitative volumetric analysis of caudate abnormalities in pediatric ADHD, the results of which show strong correlation with expert manual analysis.
Conclusion
CaudateCut generates segmentation results that are comparable to gold-standard segmentations and which are reliable in the analysis of differentiating neuroanatomical abnormalities between healthy controls and pediatric ADHD.
Keywords: Brain caudate nucleus; segmentation; MRI; atlas-based strategy; Graph Cut framework
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Frederic Sampedro, Anna Domenech, & Sergio Escalera. (2014). Static and dynamic computational cancer spread quantification in whole body FDG-PET/CT scans. JMIHI - Journal of Medical Imaging and Health Informatics, 4(6), 825–831.
Abstract: In this work we address the computational cancer spread quantification scenario in whole body FDG-PET/CT scans. At the static level, this setting can be modeled as a clustering problem on the set of 3D connected components of the whole body PET tumoral segmentation mask carried out by nuclear medicine physicians. At the dynamic level, and ad-hoc algorithm is proposed in order to quantify the cancer spread time evolution which, when combined with other existing indicators, gives rise to the metabolic tumor volume-aggressiveness-spread time evolution chart, a novel tool that we claim that would prove useful in nuclear medicine and oncological clinical or research scenarios. Good performance results of the proposed methodologies both at the clinical and technological level are shown using a dataset of 48 segmented whole body FDG-PET/CT scans.
Keywords: CANCER SPREAD; COMPUTER AIDED DIAGNOSIS; MEDICAL IMAGING; TUMOR QUANTIFICATION
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Carolina Malagelada, Michal Drozdzal, Santiago Segui, Sara Mendez, Jordi Vitria, Petia Radeva, et al. (2015). Classification of functional bowel disorders by objective physiological criteria based on endoluminal image analysis. AJPGI - American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, 309(6), G413–G419.
Abstract: We have previously developed an original method to evaluate small bowel motor function based on computer vision analysis of endoluminal images obtained by capsule endoscopy. Our aim was to demonstrate intestinal motor abnormalities in patients with functional bowel disorders by endoluminal vision analysis. Patients with functional bowel disorders (n = 205) and healthy subjects (n = 136) ingested the endoscopic capsule (Pillcam-SB2, Given-Imaging) after overnight fast and 45 min after gastric exit of the capsule a liquid meal (300 ml, 1 kcal/ml) was administered. Endoluminal image analysis was performed by computer vision and machine learning techniques to define the normal range and to identify clusters of abnormal function. After training the algorithm, we used 196 patients and 48 healthy subjects, completely naive, as test set. In the test set, 51 patients (26%) were detected outside the normal range (P < 0.001 vs. 3 healthy subjects) and clustered into hypo- and hyperdynamic subgroups compared with healthy subjects. Patients with hypodynamic behavior (n = 38) exhibited less luminal closure sequences (41 ± 2% of the recording time vs. 61 ± 2%; P < 0.001) and more static sequences (38 ± 3 vs. 20 ± 2%; P < 0.001); in contrast, patients with hyperdynamic behavior (n = 13) had an increased proportion of luminal closure sequences (73 ± 4 vs. 61 ± 2%; P = 0.029) and more high-motion sequences (3 ± 1 vs. 0.5 ± 0.1%; P < 0.001). Applying an original methodology, we have developed a novel classification of functional gut disorders based on objective, physiological criteria of small bowel function.
Keywords: capsule endoscopy; computer vision analysis; functional bowel disorders; intestinal motility; machine learning
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Carolina Malagelada, F.De Lorio, Santiago Segui, S. Mendez, Michal Drozdzal, Jordi Vitria, et al. (2012). Functional gut disorders or disordered gut function? Small bowel dysmotility evidenced by an original technique. NEUMOT - Neurogastroenterology & Motility, 24(3), 223–230.
Abstract: JCR Impact Factor 2010: 3.349
Background This study aimed to determine the proportion of cases with abnormal intestinal motility among patients with functional bowel disorders. To this end, we applied an original method, previously developed in our laboratory, for analysis of endoluminal images obtained by capsule endoscopy. This novel technology is based on computer vision and machine learning techniques.
Methods The endoscopic capsule (Pillcam SB1; Given Imaging, Yokneam, Israel) was administered to 80 patients with functional bowel disorders and 70 healthy subjects. Endoluminal image analysis was performed with a computer vision program developed for the evaluation of contractile events (luminal occlusions and radial wrinkles), non-contractile patterns (open tunnel and smooth wall patterns), type of content (secretions, chyme) and motion of wall and contents. Normality range and discrimination of abnormal cases were established by a machine learning technique. Specifically, an iterative classifier (one-class support vector machine) was applied in a random population of 50 healthy subjects as a training set and the remaining subjects (20 healthy subjects and 80 patients) as a test set.
Key Results The classifier identified as abnormal 29% of patients with functional diseases of the bowel (23 of 80), and as normal 97% of healthy subjects (68 of 70) (P < 0.05 by chi-squared test). Patients identified as abnormal clustered in two groups, which exhibited either a hyper- or a hypodynamic motility pattern. The motor behavior was unrelated to clinical features.
Conclusions & Inferences With appropriate methodology, abnormal intestinal motility can be demonstrated in a significant proportion of patients with functional bowel disorders, implying a pathologic disturbance of gut physiology.
Keywords: capsule endoscopy;computer vision analysis;machine learning technique;small bowel motility
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