A comparative analysis of deep learning architectures for thyroid tissue classification with hyperspectral imaging.

Journal: Scientific reports
Published Date:

Abstract

Hyperspectral imaging has shown significant applicability in the medical field, particularly for its ability to represent spectral information that can differentiate specific biomolecular characteristics in tissue samples. However, the complexity of analyzing HSI data, due to its high dimensionality and the large volume of information, presents significant challenges. At the same time, deep learning, particularly convolutional neural networks and recurrent neural networks, has become an essential tool in medical diagnostics, providing detailed analysis across various contexts. These techniques enable the analysis of complex information often unattainable through traditional methods. This paper introduces a novel approach that integrates micro-FTIR spectroscopy with three different deep learning architectures, namely RNN, FCNN, and 1D-CNN, to compare their performance in region-based classification of thyroid tissues, including goiter, cancerous, and healthy types. The proposed deep learning methods were developed on a dataset of 60 patients and evaluated using grouped 10-fold cross-validation. The 1D-CNN achieved the highest scores in classifying the spectral data provided by micro-FTIR, enabling more precise and accurate region-based tissue classification. The 1D-CNN achieved an accuracy of 97.60%, while RNN and FCNN achieved 96.88% and 93.66%, respectively. These results highlight the effectiveness of this approach in enhancing the precision of thyroid pathology analysis.

Authors

  • Matheus de Freitas Oliveira Baffa
    Department of Computing and Mathematics, University of São Paulo, Bandeirantes Av. 3900, Monte Alegre, Ribeirão Preto, SP 14040-901, Brazil.
  • Denise Maria Zezell
    Nuclear and Energy Research Institute, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
  • Luciano Bachmann
    Department of Physics, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
  • Thiago Martini Pereira
    Department of Science and Technology, Federal University of São Paulo, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.
  • Joaquim Cezar Felipe
    Department of Computing and Mathematics, University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto, 14040-901 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. Electronic address: jfelipe@ffclrp.usp.br.