A Novel Distributed Multitask Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm for Automatic MR Brain Image Segmentation.

Journal: Journal of medical systems
Published Date:

Abstract

Artificial intelligence algorithms have been used in a wide range of applications in clinical aided diagnosis, such as automatic MR image segmentation and seizure EEG signal analyses. In recent years, many machine learning-based automatic MR brain image segmentation methods have been proposed as auxiliary methods of medical image analysis in clinical treatment. Nevertheless, many problems regarding precise medical images, which cannot be effectively utilized to improve partition performance, remain to be solved. Due to the poor contrast in grayscale images, the ambiguity and complexity of MR images, and individual variability, the performance of classic algorithms in medical image segmentation still needs improvement. In this paper, we introduce a distributed multitask fuzzy c-means (MT-FCM) clustering algorithm for MR brain image segmentation that can extract knowledge common among different clustering tasks. The proposed distributed MT-FCM algorithm can effectively exploit information common among different but related MR brain image segmentation tasks and can avoid the negative effects caused by noisy data that exist in some MR images. Experimental results on clinical MR brain images demonstrate that the distributed MT-FCM method demonstrates more desirable performance than the classic signal task method.

Authors

  • Yizhang Jiang
    School of Digital Media, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
  • Kaifa Zhao
    School of Digital Media, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. Electronic address: zhaokaifa@qq.com.
  • Kaijian Xia
    Intelligent Medical Technology Research Center, Changshu Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, Changshu, China.
  • Jing Xue
    Shandong University School of Medicine, Shandong University Jinan, P. R. China.
  • Leyuan Zhou
    Department of Radiotherapy, Affiliated Hospital, Jiangnan University, 200 Huihe Rd, Wuxi, Jiangsu, 214062, People's Republic of China.
  • Yang Ding
    Department of Pediatrics, Sainte-Justine University Hospital and University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • Pengjiang Qian