Automatic mediastinal lymph node detection in chest CT

Marco Feuerstein, Daisuke Deguchi, Takayuki Kitasaka, Shingo Iwano, Kazuyoshi Imaizumi, Yoshinori Hasegawa, Yasuhito Suenaga, Kensaka Mori

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Computed tomography (CT) of the chest is a very common staging investigation for the assessment of mediastinal, hilar, and intrapulmonary lymph nodes in the context of lung cancer. In the current clinical workflow, the detection and assessment of lymph nodes is usually performed manually, which can be error-prone and timeconsuming. We therefore propose a method for the automatic detection of mediastinal, hilar, and intrapulmonary lymph node candidates in contrast-enhanced chest CT. Based on the segmentation of important mediastinal anatomy (bronchial tree, aortic arch) and making use of anatomical knowledge, we utilize Hessian eigenvalues to detect lymph node candidates. As lymph nodes can be characterized as blob-like structures of varying size and shape within a specific intensity interval, we can utilize these characteristics to reduce the number of false positive candidates significantly. We applied our method to 5 cases suspected to have lung cancer. The processing time of our algorithm did not exceed 6 minutes, and we achieved an average sensitivity of 82.1% and an average precision of 13.3%.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMedical Imaging 2009
Subtitle of host publicationComputer-Aided Diagnosis
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes
EventMedical Imaging 2009: Computer-Aided Diagnosis - Lake Buena Vista, FL, United States
Duration: 10-02-200912-02-2009

Publication series

NameProgress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
Volume7260
ISSN (Print)1605-7422

Conference

ConferenceMedical Imaging 2009: Computer-Aided Diagnosis
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLake Buena Vista, FL
Period10-02-0912-02-09

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Biomaterials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

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