New models for region of interest reader classification analysis in chest radiographs

In several computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) applications of image processing, there is no sufficiently sensitive and specific method for determining what constitutes a normal versus an abnormal classification of a chest radiograph. In the case of lung nodule detection or in classifying the perfusion of pneumoconiosis, multiple radiograph readers (radiologists) are asked to examine and score specific regions of interest (ROIs). The readers provide size, shape and perfusion grades for the presence of opacities in each region and then use all the ROI grades to classify the lung as normal or abnormal. The combined grades from all readers are then used to arrive at a consensus normal or abnormal classification. In this paper, using area under the ROC curve, we evaluate new mathematical models that are based on mathematical statistics, logic functions, and several statistical classifiers to analyze reader performance in grading chest radiographs for pneumoconiosis as the first step toward applying this technique to early detection of nodules found in lung cancer. In pneumoconiosis, rounded opacities are on the order of 1-10 mm in size, while lung nodules are often not diagnosed until they reach a size on the order of 1 cm.