Classification brain MR images through a fuzzy multiwavelets based GMM and probabilistic neural networks

Abstract

In this paper, a new approach for classification of brain tissues into White Matter, Gray Matter, Cerebral Spinal Fluid, Glial Matter, Connective and MS lesion in multiple sclerosis is introduced. This work considers fuzzy multiwavelets, Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) and Weighted Probabilistic Neural Networks (WPNN) for the classification of the brain tissues. Multiwavelet packet transformation is employed on brain MR images. Since multiwavelet packet transformation yields larger number of subbands compared to multiwavelet and wavelet transformations, we have proposed a fuzzy-set based theory for selection of the subbands. In contrast to the standard method of subband selection, guided by the criteria of signal energy, our method is based on the discriminatory features from the multiwavelet packet transformation coefficients. Singular values are then computed from the selected subbands. The singular values of lower magnitudes are truncated for effective classification of brain tissues in the presence of noise. Probability density functions of the remaining singular values are modeled as GMM. Model parameters are estimated using stochastic EM (SEM). They are used as features for the classification. The classification is carried out using WPNN. Experiments have been carried out using the data sets composed of three modalities of brain MR images, namely T1 and T2 relaxation times and proton density weighted MR images. Experimental results prove that the proposed approach gives better classification rate at various noise levels compared to existing approaches.