COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN TWO

AUTOMATIC SYSTEMS FOR LUNGS SEGMENTATION

AND QUANTIFICATION FROM CT IMAGES OF
HEALTHY PERSONS AND PATIENTS WITH COPD

J.H.S. Felix, P.C. Cortez1, J.M.R. S. Tavares2, V.H.C. de Albuquerque2 and M.A. Holanda3
1DETI/UFC, 2DEMEGI/FEUP, 3DPI/UFC

(johht@yahoo.com.br, cortez@deti.ufc.br, tavares@fe.up.pt, victor.albuquerque@fe.up.pt, marceloalcantara2@gmail.com)

1 – Introduction
The analysis of Computed Tomography (CT) images
may improve the accuracy in diagnosing and
quantifying emphysema, an essential pathological
hallmark of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
(COPD). We have developed a new Computational
Vision system able to evaluate emphysema from High-
Resolution Computerized Tomography (HRCT) images
In Figures 2(a), (d), (g) and (j), are presented the In the images segmented by the Osiris system,
original images of the lungs obtained from HRCT. the regions indicated by blue circles represent
These images were randomly selected to illustrate the segmentations with losses.
losses However,
However in the
usage of Osiris and SVEP systems. same images, our system works well.
In Figures 2(a), (d), (g) and (j) are presented the Nevertheless, on some of the images analyzed
original images of lungs from a healthy volunteer; in our SVEP system presented errors of on
Figures 2(b), (e), (h) and (l) are shown the lungs segmentation and segmentation with loss, as
segmented images using the Osiris system; and in shown in Table 1.
Figures 2(c), (f), (i) and (m) are shown the segmented On segmentation, Segmentation Wrong
Systems Images
images using our SVEP system.
N, % with losses, N(5) segmentation N(5)

of the lung. In order to do it, the system needs to In Figures 3(a), (d), (g) and (j) are presented the Osiris
healthy volunteers 0% 42.16% 0%

automatically segment the lungs and extract quantitative original images of lungs of a COPD patient; in Figures COPD patients 0% 39.32% 0%

data Our system is called SVEP (Computational Vision

data. 3(b) (e),
3(b), ( ) (h) andd (l) are shown
h the
h lungs
l segmentedd SVEP
healthy volunteers 5 88%
5.88% 0 98%
0.98% 0%

System for Detection and Quantification of Pulmonary images using the Osiris system; and in Figures 3(c), COPD patients 3.55% 2.84% 0%

Emphysemas). The main goal of this study was to (f), (i) and (m) are shown the images using our SVEP Table 1: Results of the segmentations done on 102
compare the SVEP with the well known Osiris system system. images of healthy volunteers and 141 images of COPD
on lung segmentation. Moreover, the ability of the patients.
SVEP on calculating lung areas, volumes and In Table 2 are presented the results of the area
perimeters was assessed from HRCT images obtained [mm2], volume [mm3] and perimeter [mm],
from healthy volunteers and COPD patients. measurements obtained with the SVEP and
Osiris systems in healthy and COPD patients.
a) b) c)
2 – Methodology Person O
Osiris System
S S
SVEP S
System

Healthy
Area Volume Perimeter Area Volume Perimeter
Volunteer
Figure 2(a) 5.783 - - 5.564 8.347 419

102 images of 8 healthy volunteers and 141 images of Figure 2(b) 22.138 - - 22.839 34.319 948
Figure 2(c) 27.026 - - 26.827 40.240 1.075
11 COPD patients were used for the comparison of Figure 2(d) 21.043 - - 21.304 31.956 908

lungs segmentation obtained by the Osiris and SVEP COPD patient

Figure 3(a)
-

35.369
-

-
-

-
-

18.524
-

27.785
-

825

systems. HRCT scans were performed on a Aukelet d) e) f) Figure 3(b) 17.412 - - 35.287 52.930 1.309
Figure 3(c) 32.887 - - 32.478 48.717 1.096
Toshiba TSX-003A, CT calibrations for air and water Figure 3(d) 35.544 - - 35.338 53.006 1.113

densities were performed immediately before each

exam. All CT scans were performed at functional
residual capacity (FRC). Technical parameters were 1,5
mm collimation, 120 Kv, 200mA, matrix of 512 x 512,
field of view (FOV) of 312mm and 1,8 s scanning time.
Three lung slices with the following anatomic marks
were obtained: at the apex (2 cm above the aortic arc),
hilum (1 cm below the carina) and basis (2 cm above
the diaphragm). Images were reconstructed using a high
spatial resolution algorithm with a display window
width of 1600 HU and a window center of -600 HU.
SVEP system is based on typical algorithms for medical
imaging processing and analysis, accomplishing the
lungs segmentation using a technique of Region
Growing, and it is able to measure the area, volume and
perimeter of lungs from healthy volunteers and COPD
patients from images. Thus, the proposed system can
aid the medical diagnostic on normal or COPD patients.
Table 2: Comparison between the Osiris and
SVEP systems on area, perimeter and volume
measurements of the lungs in healthy volunteers
g) h) i)
and COPD patients.
4 – Conclusions
This study presents a new automatic system to
j) l) m) segment the lungs of COPD patients and
Figure 2: Original images: (a), (d), (g) and (j); pulmonary healthy volunteers from HRCT images.
segmentation done using the Osiris system: (b), (e), (h) and (l); The automatic segmentation done by our SVEP
and segmentation done by using the SVEP system instead: (c),(c) system shows satisfactory results and higher
(f), (i) and (m).
quality than the ones obtained using the Osiris
system. Moreover, it is able to measure
important diagnosis parameters, such as lungs
perimeter and volume, which is not possible
with the Osiris system, being this the main
contribution of our work.
a) b) c)
Thus, our SVEP system may be an adjunct tool
for investigating lung alterations in health and
COPD patients. The clinical utility of it needs
to be determined on clinical trials.

d) e) f) Some References

Girard, C. et al., Osiris-user manual. 3.1. edition,

Switzerland, 1996.
Figure 1: Interface of our SVEP system.
g) h) i) Gonzalez, R. C. and Woods, R., Digital image
3 – Results and discussion processing
processing, 3ª edition
edition, Addison Wesley
Addison-Wesley
Publishing Company, EUA, 2008.
The segmentation obtained is classified in: on
segmentation, which has the addition of structures that Stoel, B. C. and Stolk, J., Optimization and
are not part of lung tissue as, for example, hilo or union standardization of lung densitometry in the
between the lungs; segmentation with losses, which has j) l) m) assessment of pulmonary emphysema,
the absence of a large part of the lung or tissues; and Figure 3: Original images: (a), (d), (g) and (j); pulmonary Investigative Radiology, 2004, Vol. 39, 681-688.
segmentation done by the Osiris system: (b), (e), (h) and (l);
wrong segmentation, when one or both lungs are not and segmentation done by our system SVEP instead: (c), (f),
segmented. (i) and (m).