Fuzzy clustering-based image segmentation techniques used to segment magnetic resonance imaging/computed tomography scan brain tissues: Comparative analysis

Medical images are obtained with computer-aided diagnosis using electronic devices such as CT scanners and MRI machines. The captured computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images typically have limited spatial resolution, low contrast, noise and nonuniform variability in intensity due to environmental effects. Therefore, the distinctions of the objects are blurred, distorted and the meanings of the objects are not quite precise. Fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic are best suited for addressing vagueness and ambiguity. Fuzzy clustering technique has been commonly used for segmentation of images throughout the last decade. This study presents a comparative study of 14 fuzzy-clustered image segmentation algorithms used in the CT scan and MRI brain image segments. This study used 17 data sets including 4 synthetic data sets, namely, Bensaid, Diamond, Square, and its noisy version, 5 real-world digital images, and 8 CT scan/MRI brain images to analyze the algorithms. Ground truth images are used for qualitative analysis. Apart from the qualitative analysis, the study also quantitatively evaluated the methods using three validity metrics, namely, partition coefficient, partition entropy, and Fukuyama-Sugeno. After a thorough and careful review of the results, it is observed that extension of the fuzzy C-means (EFCM) outperformed every other image segmentation algorithm, even in a noisy environment, followed by kernel-based FCM σ, the output of which is also very good after EFCM.     

A novel brain image segmentation using intuitionistic fuzzy C means algorithm

A process of splitting the image into pixel bands is the image segmentation. As medical imaging contain uncertainties, there are difficulties in classification of images into homogeneous regions. There is a need for segmentation algorithm for removing the noise from the medical image segmentation. The very popular algorithm is Fuzzy C‐Means (FCM) algorithm used for image segmentation. Fuzzy sets, rough sets, and the combination of fuzzy and rough sets play a prominent role in formalizing uncertainty, vagueness, and incompleteness in diagnosis. But it will use intensity values only which will be highly sensitive to noise. In this article, an Intuitionistic FCM (IFCM) algorithm is presented for clustering. Intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) sets are generalized sets and their elements are characterized by a membership value as well as nonmembership value. This IFCM has an uncertainty parameter which is called hesitation degree and a new objective function is integrated in the standard FCM based on IF entropy. The IFCM will provide better performance than FCM for image segmentation.     

Robust brain MRI denoising and segmentation using enhanced non‐local means algorithm

Image denoising is an integral component of many practical medical systems. Non‐local means (NLM) is an effective method for image denoising which exploits the inherent structural redundancy present in images. Improved adaptive non‐local means (IANLM) is an improved variant of classical NLM based on a robust threshold criterion. In this paper, we have proposed an enhanced non‐local means (ENLM) algorithm, for application to brain MRI, by introducing several extensions to the IANLM algorithm. First, a Rician bias correction method is applied for adapting the IANLM algorithm to Rician noise in MR images. Second, a selective median filtering procedure based on fuzzy c‐means algorithm is proposed as a postprocessing step, in order to further improve the quality of IANLM‐filtered image. Third, different parameters of the proposed ENLM algorithm are optimized for application to brain MR images. Different variants of the proposed algorithm have been presented in order to investigate the influence of the proposed modifications. The proposed variants have been validated on both T1‐weighted (T1‐w) and T2‐weighted (T2‐w) simulated and real brain MRI. Compared with other denoising methods, superior quantitative and qualitative denoising results have been obtained for the proposed algorithm. Additionally, the proposed algorithm has been applied to T2‐weighted brain MRI with multiple sclerosis lesion to show its superior capability of preserving pathologically significant information. Finally, impact of the proposed algorithm has been tested on segmentation of brain MRI. Quantitative and qualitative segmentation results verify that the proposed algorithm based segmentation is better compared with segmentation produced by other contemporary techniques.     

Fuzzy entropy‐based MR brain image segmentation using modified particle swarm optimization

This article presents an image segmentation technique based on fuzzy entropy, which is applied to magnetic resonance (MR) brain images in order to detect brain tumors. The proposed method performs image segmentation based on adaptive thresholding of the input MR images. The image is classified into two membership functions (MFs) of the fuzzy region: Z‐function and S‐function. The optimal parameters of these fuzzy MFs are obtained using modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) algorithm. The objective function for obtaining the optimal fuzzy MF parameters is considered to be the maximum fuzzy entropy. Through a number of examples, The performance is compared with existing entropy based object segmentation approaches and the superiority of the proposed method is demonstrated. The experimental results are compared with the exhaustive search method and Otsu's segmentation technique. The result shows the proposed fuzzy entropy‐based segmentation method optimized using MPSO achieves maximum entropy with proper segmentation of infected areas and with minimum computational time. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 23, 281–288, 2013     

MRI brain segmentation in combination of clustering methods with Markov random field

Medical image segmentation is a preliminary stage of inclusion in identification tools. The correct segmentation of brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images is crucial for an accurate detection of the disease diagnosis. Due to in‐homogeneity, low distinction and noise the segmentation of the brain MRI images is treated as the most challenging task. In this article, we proposed hybrid segmentation, by combining the clustering methods with Hidden Markov Random Field (HMRF) technique. This aims to decrease the computational load and improves the runtime of segmentation method, as MRF methodology is used in post‐processing the images. Its evaluation has performed on real imaging data, resulting in the classification of brain tissues with dice similarity metric. These results indicate the improvement in performance of the proposed method with various noise levels, compared with existing algorithms. In implementation, selection of clustering method provides better results in the segmentation of MRI brain images.     

A machine learning approach for brain image enhancement and segmentation

In brain MRI analysis, image segmentation is commonly used for measuring and visualizing the brain's anatomical structures, for surgical planning, etc. However, due to presence of noise and uncertainty between different tissues in the brain image, the segmentation of brain is a challenging task. This problem is rectified in this article using two stages. In the first stage an enhancement technique called contrast limited fuzzy adaptive histogram equalization (CLFAHE) which is a combination of CLAHE and fuzzy enhancement is used to improve the contrast of MRI Brain images. Contrast of the image is controlled using contrast intensification operator (Clip limit). The second stage deals with the segmentation of enhanced image. The enhanced brain images are segmented using new level‐set method which has the property of both local and global segmentation. Signed pressure force (SPF) function is also used here which stops the contours at weak and blurred edged efficiently.     

MRI brain image enhancement using brightness preserving adaptive fuzzy histogram equalization

In this article, fuzzy logic based adaptive histogram equalization (AHE) is proposed to enhance the contrast of MRI brain image. Medical image plays an important role in monitoring patient's health condition and giving an effective diagnostic. Mostly, medical images suffer from different problems such as poor contrast and noise. So it is necessary to enhance the contrast and to remove the noise in order to improve the quality of a various medical images such as CT, X‐ray, MRI, and MAMOGRAM images. Fuzzy logic is a useful tool for handling the ambiguity or uncertainty. Brightness Preserving Adaptive Fuzzy Histogram Equalization technique is proposed to improve the contrast of MRI brain images by preserving brightness. Proposed method comprises of two stages. First, fuzzy logic is applied to an input image and then it's output is given to AHE technique. This process not only preserves the mean brightness and but also improves the contrast of an image. A huge number of highly MRI brain images are taken in the proposed method. Performance of the proposed method is compared with existing methods using the parameters namely entropy, feature similarity index, and contrast improvement index and the experimental results show that the proposed method overwhelms the previous existing methods.     

A fully automated hybrid methodology using Cuckoo‐based fuzzy clustering technique for magnetic resonance brain image segmentation

This article aims at developing an automated hybrid algorithm using Cuckoo Based Search (CBS) and interval type‐2 fuzzy based clustering, so as to exhibit efficient magnetic resonance (MR) brain image segmentation. An automatic MR brain image segmentation facilitates and enables a radiologist to have a brief review and easy analysis of complicated tumor regions of imprecise gray level regions with minimal user interface. The tumor region having severe intensity variations and suffering from poor boundaries are to be detected by the proposed hybrid technique that could ease the process of clinical diagnosis and this tends to be the core subject of this article. The ability of the proposed technique is compared using standard comparison parameters such as mean squared error, peak signal to noise ratio, computational time, Dice Overlap Index, and Jaccard T animoto C oefficient Index. The proposed CBS combined with interval type‐2 fuzzy based clustering produces a sensitivity of 0.7143 and specificity of 0.9375, which are far better than the conventional techniques such as kernel based, entropy based, graph‐cut based, and self‐organizing maps based clustering. Appreciable segmentation results of tumor region that enhances clinical diagnosis is made available through this article and two of the radiologists who have hands on experience in the field of radiology have extended their support in validating the efficiency of the proposed methodology and have given their consent in utilizing the proposed methodology in the processes of clinical oncology.     

Fuzzy C means integrated with spatial information and contrast enhancement for segmentation of MR brain images

This paper proposes a fully automated method for MR brain image segmentation into Gray Matter, White Matter and Cerebro‐spinal Fluid. It is an extension of Fuzzy C Means Clustering Algorithm which overcomes its drawbacks, of sensitivity to noise and inhomogeneity. In the conventional FCM, the membership function is computed based on the Euclidean distance between the pixel and the cluster center. It does not take into consideration the spatial correlation among the neighboring pixels. This means that the membership values of adjacent pixels belonging to the same cluster may not have the same range of membership value due to the contamination of noise and hence misclassified. Hence, in the proposed method, the membership function is convolved with mean filter and thus the local spatial information is incorporated in the clustering process. The method further includes pixel re‐labeling and contrast enhancement using non‐linear mapping to improve the segmentation accuracy. The proposed method is applied to both simulated and real T1‐weighted MR brain images from BrainWeb and IBSR database. Experiments show that there is an increase in segmentation accuracy of around 30% over the conventional methods and 6% over the state of the art methods.     

模拟退火与模糊C-均值聚类相结合的图像分割算法

模糊C-均值(FCM)聚类算法是一种结合无监督聚类和模糊集合概念的图像分割技术,比较有效,但存在着受初始聚类中心和隶属度矩阵影响,可能收敛到局部极小的缺点.将模拟退火算法(SA)与模糊C-均值聚类算法相结合,在合理选择冷却进度表的基础上,依据模糊C-均值聚类算法建立模拟退火算法的目标函数,实现了基于模拟退火的模糊C-均值聚类图像分割算法.实验表明,该方法具有搜索全局最优解的能力,因而可得到很好的图像分割结果.     

Fully automatic method for segmentation of brain tumor from multimodal magnetic resonance images using wavelet transformation and clustering technique

Fully automatic brain tumor segmentation is one of the critical tasks in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. This proposed work is aimed to develop an automatic method for brain tumor segmentation process by wavelet transformation and clustering technique. The proposed method using discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for pre‐ and post‐processing, fuzzy c‐means (FCM) for brain tissues segmentation. Initially, MRI images are preprocessed by DWT to sharpen the images and enhance the tumor region. It assists to quicken the FCM clustering technique and classified into four major classes: gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and background (BG). Then check the abnormality detection using Fuzzy symmetric measure for GM, WM, and CSF classes. Finally, DWT method is applied in segmented abnormal region of images respectively and extracts the tumor portion. The proposed method used 30 multimodal MRI training datasets from BraTS2012 database. Several quantitative measures were calculated and compared with the existing. The proposed method yielded the mean value of similarity index as 0.73 for complete tumor, 0.53 for core tumor, and 0.35 for enhancing tumor. The proposed method gives better results than the existing challenging methods over the publicly available training dataset from MICCAI multimodal brain tumor segmentation challenge and a minimum processing time for tumor segmentation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 26, 305–314, 2016     

Brightness preserving optimized weighted bi-histogram equalization algorithm and its application to MR brain image segmentation

Medical image segmentation is crucial for neuroscience research and computer-aided diagnosis. However, intensity inhomogeneity and existence of noise in magnetic resonance images lead to incorrect segmentation. In this article, an effective method called enhanced fuzzy level set algorithm is presented to segment the white matter, gray matter, and cerebrospinal fluid automatically in contrast-enhanced brain images. In this method, first, exposure threshold is computed to divide the input histogram into two sub-histograms of different gray levels. The input histogram is clipped using a mean gray level to control the excessive enhancement rate. Then, these two sub-histograms are modified and equalized independently to get a better contrast enhanced image. Finally, an enhanced fuzzy level set algorithm is employed to facilitate image segmentation. The extensive experimental results proved the outstanding performance of the proposed algorithm compared with other existing methods. The results conform its effectiveness for MR brain image segmentation.     

Unsupervised learning-based clustering approach for smart identification of pathologies and segmentation of tissues in brain magnetic resonance imaging

Human-made/developed algorithms provide automatic identification and segmentation of the tissues, lesions and tumor regions available in brain magnetic resonance scan images, which invocates predicaments such as high computational cost and low accuracy rate. Such hassles are reconciled with the utilization of an unsupervised approach in combination with clustering techniques. Initially, static features are chosen from the input image, which is fed to the self-organizing map (SOM), where the algorithm employs the dimensionality reduction of input images. Consecutively, the reduced SOM prototype of data is clustered by the modified fuzzy K-means (MFKM) algorithm. The MFKM algorithm can be modified in terms of membership variables because it operates with spatial information and converges quickly, and this would be of greater benefit to radiologists as they reduce the wrong predictions and voluminous time that normally occur owing to human involvement. The proposed algorithm provides 98.77% sensitivity and 97.5% specificity, which are better than any other traditional algorithms mentioned in this article.     

一种基于FCM的图像分割方法

提出一种新的图像分割方法 FWFCM(fast walvet fuzzy C-means method),该方法对图像像素点的灰度进行模糊隶属度的分析,将需要聚类的像素空间投影到灰度直方图空间,从而减少了经典FCM算法的迭代计算量,提高了算法的收敛速度;并且利用小波变换的多分辨率的分析,抑制噪声点对图像分割的影响,提高了图像分割的精度.     

A complete automated algorithm for segmentation of tissues and identification of tumor region in T1, T2, and FLAIR brain images using optimization and clustering techniques

Tissues in brain are the most complicated parts of our body, a clear examination and study are therefore required by a radiologist to identify the pathologies. Normal magnetic resonance (MR) scanner is capable of producing brain images with bounded tissues, where unique and segregated views of the tissues are required. A distinguished view upon the images is manually impossible and can be subjected to operator errors. With the assistance of a soft computing technique, an automated unique segmentation upon the brain tissues along with the identification of the tumor region can be effectively done. These functionalities assist the radiologist extensively. Several soft computing techniques have been proposed and one such technique which is being proposed is PSO‐based FCM algorithm. The results of the proposed algorithm is compared with fuzzy C‐means (FCM) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms using comparison factors such as mean square error (MSE), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), entropy (energy function), Jaccard (Tanimoto Coefficient) index, dice overlap index and memory requirement for processing the algorithm. The efficiency of the PSO‐FCM algorithm is verified using the comparison factors.     

Denoising and segmentation of MR images using fourth order non-linear adaptive PDE and new convergent clustering

At present, digital image processing plays a vital role in medical imaging areas and specifically in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain images such as axial and coronal sections. This article mainly focused on the MRI brain images. The existing methods such as total variation (MC), parallel MRI, modified pyramidal dual-tree direction filter, adaptive dictionary selection algorithm, classifier methods, and fuzzy clustering techniques are poor in image eminence and precision. Thus, this article presents a novel approach consisting of denoising followed by segmentation. The objective of these proposed methods was visual eminence improvement of medical images to examine tumor extent using an adaptive partial differential equation (APDE)-based analysis with soft threshold function in denoising. The fourth order, nonlinear APDE was used to denoise the image depending on gradient and Laplacian operators associated with the new adaptive Haar-type wavelet transform. A second approach was the new convergent K-means clustering for segmentation. The convergent K-means procedure diminishes the summation of the squared deviations of structures in a cluster from the center. The significance of these proposed methods was to compute their performances in terms of mean squared error, peak signal-to-noise ratio, structure similarity, segmentation accuracy, false hit, missed-term, and elapsed time. The results were analyzed with the MATLAB software.     

基于图像处理的药片包装视觉检测系统滤波算法

目的为了有效滤除药片包装视觉检测系统中的噪声,提升图像清晰度,保证后期图像分割、边缘处理顺利进行。方法针对药片视觉检测图像中存在大量不确定噪声,提出一种自适应模糊神经网络的图像滤波算法。在模糊神经网络结构中引入一个鲁棒性较强的隶属函数,并通过梯度下降法对模糊神经网络中的参数进行优化训练,利用优化后的网络结构对被噪声污染的图像进行滤波处理。结果仿真结果表明,该算法能够在保留较完整的图像边缘和重要细节的前提下,有效滤除药片中的噪声。结论该滤波算法有效提高了药片图像的清晰度,对于后期药片图像分割以及边缘化处理具有重要意义。     

A deep learning model integrating convolution neural network and multiple kernel K means clustering for segmenting brain tumor in magnetic resonance images

In medical imaging, segmenting brain tumor becomes a vital task, and it provides a way for early diagnosis and treatment. Manual segmentation of brain tumor in magnetic resonance (MR) images is a time‐consuming and challenging task. Hence, there is a need for a computer‐aided brain tumor segmentation approach. Using deep learning algorithms, a robust brain tumor segmentation approach is implemented by integrating convolution neural network (CNN) and multiple kernel K means clustering (MKKMC). In this proposed CNN‐MKKMC approach, classification of MR images into normal and abnormal is performed by CNN algorithm. At next, MKKMC algorithm is employed to segment the brain tumor from the abnormal brain image. The proposed CNN‐MKKMC algorithm is evaluated both visually and objectively in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity with the existing segmentation methods. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed CNN‐MKKMC approach yields better accuracy in segmenting brain tumor with less time cost.     

Fuzzy generalized fast marching method for 3D segmentation of brain structures

The aim of this work is to develop a new model for segmentation of brain structures in medical brain MR images. Brain segmentation is a challenging task due to the complex anatomical structure of brain structures as well as intensity nonuniformity, partial volume effects and noise. Generally the structures of interest are of relatively complicated size and have significant shape variations, the structures boundaries may be blurry or even missing, and the surrounding background is full of irrelevant edges. Segmentation methods based on fuzzy models have been developed to overcome the uncertainty caused by these effects. In this study, we propose a robust and accurate brain structures segmentation method based on a combination of fuzzy model and deformable model. Our method breaks up into two great parts. Initially, a preliminary stage allows to construct the various information maps, in particular a fuzzy map, used as a principal information source, constructed using the Fuzzy C‐means method (FCM). Then, a deformable model implemented with the generalized fast marching method (GFMM), evolves toward the structure to be segmented, under the action of a normal force defined from these information maps. In this sense, we used a powerful evolution function based on a fuzzy model, adapted for brain structures. Two extensions of our general method are presented in this work. The first extension concerns the addition of an edge map to the fuzzy model and the use of some rules adapted to the segmentation process. The second extension consists of the use of several models evolving simultaneously to segment several structures. Extensive experiments are conducted on both simulated and real brain MRI datasets. Our proposed approach shows promising and achieves significant improvements with respect to several state‐of‐the‐art methods and with the three practical segmentation techniques widely used in neuroimaging studies, namely SPM, FSL, and Freesurfer.     

Image-segmentation algorithm based on wavelet and data-driven neutrosophic fuzzy clustering

Aim to that Neutrosophic C-mean clustering segmentation does not consider the membership distribution of every sample point to different classes. Herein, an image-segmentation algorithm based on wavelet and data-driven neutrosophic fuzzy clustering is proposed. When the maximum membership value of a sample point is far greater than other membership values, the centre of the class with the maximum membership value is taken as the centre of the fuzzy class. Otherwise, the average value of the centre of the two classes with the highest and second-highest membership values is used as the centre of the fuzzy class. In the preprocessing stage, wavelet technology is used to remove noise from the processed image, and the improved Bayesian algorithm is employed to calculate the filter threshold. The experiment results for synthetic and natural images show that the proposed method is more accurate and effective than the existing methods.