Computer-Aided Diagnosis of Pneumoconiosis X-ray Images Scanned with a Common CCD Scanner

Abstract

This paper presents a discrimination of pneumoconiosis X-ray images obtained with a common CCD scanner. Current computer-aided diagnosis systems of pneumoconiosis have been proposed to images obtained with a special scanner such as a drum scanner or a film scanner for X-ray pictures. However, since the special scanners need a large storage space and the scanners and commitment of the imaging need high-priced costs, the systems are not practical in small clinics. In this paper, we propose features for measuring abnormalities of pneumoconiosis as variables for the discrimination. Devices in the proposed system are only a tablet PC and a CCD scanner. In images obtained with CCD scanner, abnormal levels of pneumoconiosis could depend on density distribution in rib areas. Therefore, the proposed method measures the abnormalities by extracting characteristics of the distribution in the areas. Besides, using the abnormalities, the proposed method discriminates chest X-ray images into normal or abnormal cases of pneumoconiosis. Experimental results of the discriminations for 59 right-lung images have shown that the proposed abnormalities are well extracted for the discrimination.