Computer-Aided Diagnosis of Intracranial Aneurysms in MRA Images with Case-Based Reasoning

Syoji KOBASHI
Katsuya KONDO
Yutaka HATA

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information and Systems   Vol.E89-D    No.1    pp.340-350
Publication Date: 2006/01/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1361
DOI: 10.1093/ietisy/e89-d.1.340
Print ISSN: 0916-8532
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Biological Engineering
Keyword: 
intracranial aneurysm,  magnetic resonance angiography,  case-based reasoning,  computer-aided diagnosis,  fuzzy logic,  

Full Text: PDF(2MB)>>
Buy this Article


Summary: 
Finding intracranial aneurysms plays a key role in preventing serious cerebral diseases such as subarachnoid hemorrhage. For detection of aneurysms, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) can provide detailed images of arteries non-invasively. However, because over 100 MRA images per subject are required to cover the entire cerebrum, image diagnosis using MRA is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. This article presents a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for finding aneurysms with MRA images. The principal components are identification of aneurysm candidates (= ROIs; regions of interest) from MRA images and estimation of a fuzzy degree for each aneurysm candidate based on a case-based reasoning (CBR). The fuzzy degree indicates whether a candidate is true aneurysm. Our system presents users with a limited number of ROIs that have been sorted in order of fuzzy degree. Thus, this system can decrease the time and the labor required for detecting aneurysms. Experimental results using phantoms indicate that the system can detect all aneurysms at branches of arteries and all saccular aneurysms produced by dilation of a straight artery in 1 direction perpendicular to the principal axis. In a clinical evaluation, performance in finding aneurysms and estimating the fuzzy degree was examined by applying the system to 16 subjects with a total of 19 aneurysms. The experimental results indicate that this CAD system detected all aneurysms except a fusiform aneurysm, and gave high fuzzy degrees and high priorities for the detected aneurysms.

open access publishing via