AUTOMATED CLASSIFICATION OF MRI
BRAIN IMAGES
CN Savithri
Department of Electronics and Communication
Sri Sairam Engineering College
Chennai, India
savithri.ece@sairam.edu.in
N Lavanya Devi
Department of Electronics and Communication
PSNA College of Engineering and Technology
Dindigul, India
carolpraveenece@gmail.com
R Carol Praveen
Department of Electronics and Communication
SSM Institute of Engineering and Technology
Dindigul, India
lavanyadevinadarajan@psnacet.edu.in
Varunapriyan K
Department of Electronics and Communication
Sri Sairam Engineering College
Chennai, India
varunapriyan@ieee.org
Abstract: The death rate due to brain tumor is increasing
rapidly. The accumulation of cells in an uncontrolled
manner leads to brain tumor. The life taking tumor can
be cured if it is detected in the early stage. This paper
deals with analyzing the performance of the different
kernels functions on SVM classification algorithm. The
performance of the proposed algorithm is being measured
by parameters like accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and
precision. The kernels like Laplace RBF kernel,
Gaussian kernel, polynomial kernel, Hyperbolic tangent
kernel, and Sigmoid kernel are applied on SVM. Among
the various kernel functions, Gaussian kernel SVM gave
good results. Otsu segmentation is applied on the
abnormal images to high light the tumor region in the
brain MRI images.
Key words- MRI brain image, SVM classifier, Gray
level co-occurrence matrix, principle component analysis,
OTSU Segmentation
I. INTRODUCTION
Tumor in the brain is the development of
abnormality in cells of the brain. The spreading of the
cancerous cells will depend on the type and size of the
cancerous cells. The growth rate of the benign tumors
is slow compared to the malignant tumors. The primary
type of brain tumor, the abnormal cells is developed in
the brain itself. In secondary types of brain tumors, the
cancerous cells would have developed somewhere else
and would have extended to the brain. Among adults,
the most common type of cancer is secondary.  noise. The input brain images are chosen in such a way
The brain tumor causes an interruption in the
flow of blood in the blood vessels and will lead to
stroke. There are two types of strokes.  The first one is
called ischemic stroke in which the blockage in the
blood vessels will cause hindrance to the supply of
blood to the blood vessel. The second one is called
hemorrhagic stroke in which there will be leakage of
blood from the blood vessel. The hemorrhagic stroke is
more dangerous than the ischemic stroke as it causes
sudden death. For detecting the brain tumor, Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer Tomography
(CT) can be used. But, due to the clarity and the low
radiation, MRI imaging is more preferred. This paper
deals with the automatic detection of tumor in the MRI
brain image by segmenting the abnormal region.
A. Related Work
The research related to the brain MRI images is
discussed in this section. Research paper [1] proposed
a method for the automatic segmentation of brain
vessel image. MIP calculation is applied to reduce the
amount of mixing the elements. Then, at that point, the
Gaussian Mixture Model is used to fix the stochastic
dissemination of the brain vessels and brain tissue. At
last, the SEM calculation is embraced to compute the
Gaussian Mixture Model's hyper parameters. The
achievability and legitimacy of the model is also
checked. With the model, minute parts of the blood
vessel can be segmented.
Paper [2] suggested an algorithm for the
automatic segmentation of MRI brain tissue. The
authors have used graph cut method for the
segmentation of the MRI brain tissue images. The steps
followed in the segmentation of the brain MRI images
are brain masking, preprocessing for enhancing the
MRI brain image and finally segmentation algorithm
based on graph cut with RBF kernel are used. The
specialty of the segmentation algorithm suggested in
this paper is multi-region graph cut method. The input
brain image is segmented into Gray Matter (GM),
White Matter (WM) and Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF).
Discrete and continuous formulations are suggested for
segmentation and masking of the brain MRI images.
The performance of the suggested methodology is
evaluated by comparing it with the state of art methods
and ensured the better performance of the suggested
algorithm.
Paper [3] put forward a novel method for the
segmentation of MRI brain images which is based on
the modified Fuzzy means algorithm. The researchers
have implemented Gaussian filtering to remove the
that they have 5% and 9% noise interference. The gray
histogram is used to initialize the cluster center. The
terminating condition for the algorithm is fixed by
determining the difference between the values obtained
in the previous iteration and the current iteration. The
membership functions are also initialized. It the
terminating conditions are achieved, the membership
functions are updated. The maximum membership
functions are used to remove the blur in the image. To
evaluate the proposed algorithm, area overlap measure
and misclassified error are computed for both
conventional FCM and Improved FCM.
In [4], a method for the reducing the noise
while segmenting the brain tissue in MRI images using
modified Fuzzy C means is proposed. The authors
suggest that the conventional FCM method does not
take into consideration the spatial information and this
probably makes the image a noisy one. As an initial
step to this algorithm the researchers have fixed the
plane of symmetry of the brain image. This plane is
called as the mid-sagittal plane. The authors have also
considered the position of the pixel from the
symmetrical axis also where as in the conventional
fuzzy C means algorithm, this is not considered. The
number of classes, membership functions, cluster
centers and the terminating conditions are also
initialized. Finally, the last membership function is
used to perform the segmentation. The performance of
the proposed algorithm is validated by both
qualitatively and quantitatively.

B. Novelty and Contribution Fig. 1. Proposed methodology

 The aim of the proposed algorithm is to classify
the input brain images into abnormal and normal
images.
 The classification of the input image is based on
the features extracted.
 Texture and statistical features are extracted and
only the significant features alone are considered
for further analysis.
 The performance of different kernel functions
applied on SVM is studied.
A. Feature Extraction
Feature extraction is the process of extracting
the features that will be useful for the classification of
the input image. Feature extraction methods: GLCM
(for texture feature) and statistical features are used in
the proposed method.
1) GLCM:

This research paper includes proposed method in
second section and conclusion in the third section.
II PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
The method proposed for the automated
classification of the brain tumor is shown in fig 1. As
shown in the figure the processes involved in the
classification are preprocessing, feature extraction,
classification and segmentation. Preprocessing step
involves converting the RGB input image into gray
scale image and image resizing. The proposed
algorithm is implemented on brain MRI images with
98 normal images and 155 abnormal images and these
images are available in kaggle.
Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM)
computes the frequency of occurrence of a
pair of pixel within a particular distance and
angle [5, 6]. GLCM is capable of calculating
the co-occurrence at angles 00, 450, 900 and
1350. Fig. 2 shows the GLCM calculated for
5 gray level values (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4) for the
distance [0 1] and angle 450 (for both +450 and
-450). Texture features like energy, entropy,
correlation and contrast are computed from
the GLCM and their equations are mentioned
from equation (1) to (4).

DATABASE

Normal brain Abnormal

images brain images

Feature Fig. 2. GLCM calculated for 5 gray level values with distance [0 1]
Extraction and angle 450

Classifier
(1)

Normal Abnormal

Segmentation
 taken into consideration for the further process. Among
the features fed as the input to the PCA, all the texture
(2) features and kurtosis turned out to be the important
features for the classification of the brain MRI images.

(3)

(4

2) Statistical Features
Input feature
Statistical features like skewness, mean, standard vector
deviation, and kurtosis are also computed to make an
analysis of distribution of gray level values and their
equations are mentioned from equations (5) to equation
(8).
Mean calculation

(5)

Compute deviation

(6)
Compute covariance
(7)

Compute Eigen values and Eigen

(8)
vectors

B. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) Fig. 3. Steps for the computation of PCA

Principal Component Analysis is applied on the C. CLASSIFICATION

features extracted to compute the most significant
features. After this point, only the significant features
are considered for further computation. The steps
followed in finding the principal components [7, 8, 9]
are shown in the Fig 3. As the initial step for the
calculation of the significant component, the mean
values of the input features are computed. The
covariance value is found from the deviation from the
mean value. Finally, the Eigen values and eigen vectors
are also computed. The top 5 significant values are
For the classification of the brain image, kernel SVM is
employed. The conventional SVM algorithm classifies
the input by optimizing the hyperplane. Normally, the
classification algorithms feed the most outstanding
character of the class. SVM feeds the common features
of the two classes.
The important steps [10] carried out in the SVM are
i) Select the hyperplanes the confusion matrix computed for each one of them.
Fig. 4 shows the confusion matrix.
ii) The margin/distance of the class and the hyperplane
is to be maximum
Predicted
iii) Determine the average line so that it becomes the
decision boundary. Negative Positive

SVM shows superior results only if the inputs are

Actual Negative True Negative False
linear. In order to make SVM suit well for the
(TN) Positive
nonlinear application also, some kernels are applied on
Positive False Negative (FP)
True
SVM. Kernels are some mathematical functions and
these functions transform the input into the required (FN) Positive
form. The following kernels functions are being (TP)
implemented for the classification of the MRI brain
Fig. 4. Confusion Matrix
images.
TN- indicates that the predicted and the actual are
i) Polynomial kernel: SVM with this type of kernel
normal
uses the similar features of the classes and it forms the
generalized form of linear SVM. FN- indicates that the predicted is normal but actually
it is abnormal
(9)
FP- indicates that the predicted is abnormal but
(9)
actually it is normal
ii) Gaussian Kernel: This type of SVM is applied on
TP- indicates that the predicted and the actual are
the input data when there is no preliminary knowledge
abnormal
about the input.
Based on the confusion matrix framed for each kernel
SVM accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and precision
(10)
are determined to find the effectiveness of the proposed
algorithm. Equation 1 to 4 shows the formula for
iii) Hyperbolic tangent kernel: This type of kernel accuracy, precision, sensitivity and specificity.
applied on the SVM is used in neural networks.

(11) (14)

iv) Laplace RBF kernel: SVM with laplace RBF kernel

is used as a general purpose kernel. (15)

(12)
(16)

v) Sigmoid kernel: The mathematical function used in

this model is similar to the neural network with the two (17)
layer perceptron model. This type of mathematical
model is usually applied on the artificial neural
network.
TABLE 1: COMPARISON OF PERFORMANCE OF VARIOUS
(13) KERNEL FUNCTIONS ON SVM

The performance of the above kernel functions on the Kernel Accu Precis Sensitiv Specific
SVM classification algorithm are analyzed and the best Function racy ion ity ity
performing kernel function will be suggested based on applied on
SVM
Polynomial 92.38 93.28 90.09 91.23
 kernel
SVM
Gaussian 94.65 95.01 92.09 91.38
Kernel
SVM
Hyperbolic 93.27 93.9 90.12 92.64
tangent
kernel (a) (b)
SVM
Laplace 91.38 92.07 88.23 87.65
RBF kernel
SVM
Sigmoid 91.5 92.89 89.88 88.56
kernel
SVM
Table 1 depicts the comparison of kernel (c) (d)
functions like polynomial, Gaussian, hyperbolic Fig. 5. (a) and (b) input MRI brain images; (c) and (d) segmented
tumor region
tangent, laplace RBF, sigmoid applied on SVM and the
performance of each kernel is being analyzed by
computing accuracy, sensitivity, precision and III. CONCLUSION
specificity in the classification of brain MRI images An algorithm for the classification of brain
into normal and abnormal images.
MRI images into abnormal and normal is developed by
analyzing the performance of various kernels functions
D. SEGMENTATION
on SVM. Among the various kernels applied, better
Segmentation in image processing is done to results are obtained for Gaussian Kernel SVM. After
identify the region of interest [10]. In the proposed the successful classification of the brain MRI images,
method, tumor region is considered as the region of segmentation is applied on abnormal images and the
interest. The identified tumor region is classified into tumor region is highlighted. The main limitation of the
benign and malignant by extracting the features. In the proposed algorithm is the manual feature extraction. In
proposed algorithm Otsu method are used as the future, the features can be automatically extracted
segmentation algorithms. and i.e., the accuracy of the proposed system may be
improved.
A. OTSU segmentation
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