A Fuzzy-C-Means-Clustering Approach: Quantifying Chromatin Pattern of Non-Neoplastic Cervical Squamous Cells

PLoS One. 2015 Nov 11;10(11):e0142830. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142830. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Despite the effectiveness of Pap-smear test in reducing the mortality rate due to cervical cancer, the criteria of the reporting standard of the Pap-smear test are mostly qualitative in nature. This study addresses the issue on how to define the criteria in a more quantitative and definite term. A negative Pap-smear test result, i.e. negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM), is qualitatively defined to have evenly distributed, finely granular chromatin in the nuclei of cervical squamous cells. To quantify this chromatin pattern, this study employed Fuzzy C-Means clustering as the segmentation technique, enabling different degrees of chromatin segmentation to be performed on sample images of non-neoplastic squamous cells. From the simulation results, a model representing the chromatin distribution of non-neoplastic cervical squamous cell is constructed with the following quantitative characteristics: at the best representative sensitivity level 4 based on statistical analysis and human experts' feedbacks, a nucleus of non-neoplastic squamous cell has an average of 67 chromatins with a total area of 10.827 μm2; the average distance between the nearest chromatin pair is 0.508 μm and the average eccentricity of the chromatin is 0.47.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Cell Nucleus / metabolism
  • Cervix Uteri / metabolism*
  • Chromatin / chemistry*
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Epithelial Cells / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Fuzzy Logic
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods
  • Models, Statistical
  • Papanicolaou Test / methods*
  • Software
  • Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / diagnosis
  • Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / diagnosis
  • Vaginal Smears / methods

Substances

  • Chromatin

Grants and funding

This study was partially supported by National Cancer Council Malaysia (MAKNA), Malaysia, under project entitled “Development of an Intelligent Screening System for Cervical Cancer” (http://makna.org.my/). The fund is received by NAMI. The study was also partially supported by the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), Malaysia under MyPhD Scholarship [https://biasiswa.mohe.gov.my/MyBrain15/v2/index_myphd.php]. The fund is received by TJR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.