Detection and classification of large bowel obstruction from X-ray images using machine learning algorithms

Large bowel obstruction (LBO) occurs when there is a blockage or twisting in the large bowel that prevents wastes and gas from passing through. If left untreated, the blockage cuts off blood supply to the colon, causing sections of it to die which results in high rates of morbidity and fatality. The examination of clinical symptoms of LBO involves careful inspection of the cecum and colon. Radiologists use X-rays to inspect the clinical signs. Some research has been done to automate the detection of related abdominal and intestinal diseases. However, all these studies concentrate only on detecting Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, Acute Appendicitis, colorectal cancer, celiac diseases, liver diseases, and chronic kidney diseases. Automatic detection and classification of LBO has not been given due attention so far to the best of the authors knowledge. To address this challenge, we have designed a model for the detection and classification of LBO. The models development comprises of stages such as preprocessing, detection, segmentation, feature extraction, and classification. We used YOLOv3 for detection and used a gray scale level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), and a convolutional neural network for feature extraction, while support vector machine (SVM) and softmax were used for classification. The proposed model achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 89% when feature extraction methods such as CNN and median filter with softmax classifier were used. CNN and Gaussian filter with soft max classifier achieved 91%, while CNN and anisotropic filter with soft max classifier achieved 92%. GLCM with threshold segmentation and Gaussian filter with SVM classifier achieved 87%, while CNN with watershed segmentation and Gaussian filter with SVM classifier achieved 97% and CNN-GLCM with watershed segmentation and anisotropic diffusion filter with SVM classifier achieved 98% for detection and classification of LBO. Finally, this paper presented a performance analysis of various machine learning approaches for detection and classification of LBO. Hence, our model is designed to assist human experts (Radiologists) in diagnosing LBO.