Automated diagnosis of brain tumours astrocytomas using probabilistic neural network clustering and support vector machines

Int J Neural Syst. 2005 Feb-Apr;15(1-2):1-11. doi: 10.1142/S0129065705000013.

Abstract

A computer-aided diagnosis system was developed for assisting brain astrocytomas malignancy grading. Microscopy images from 140 astrocytic biopsies were digitized and cell nuclei were automatically segmented using a Probabilistic Neural Network pixel-based clustering algorithm. A decision tree classification scheme was constructed to discriminate low, intermediate and high-grade tumours by analyzing nuclear features extracted from segmented nuclei with a Support Vector Machine classifier. Nuclei were segmented with an average accuracy of 86.5%. Low, intermediate, and high-grade tumours were identified with 95%, 88.3%, and 91% accuracies respectively. The proposed algorithm could be used as a second opinion tool for the histopathologists.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Astrocytoma / diagnosis*
  • Brain Neoplasms / diagnosis*
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Neural Networks, Computer*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity