Publication: Improved R2* liver iron concentration assessment using a novel fuzzy c-mean clustering scheme
Issued Date
2015
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Language
eng
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Mahidol University
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BioMed Central
Bibliographic Citation
BMC Medical Imaging. Vol. 15, (2015), 52
Suggested Citation
Pairash Saiviroonporn, Vip Viprakasit, Rungroj Krittayaphong Improved R2* liver iron concentration assessment using a novel fuzzy c-mean clustering scheme. BMC Medical Imaging. Vol. 15, (2015), 52. doi:10.1186/s12880-015-0097-5 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/2669
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Title
Improved R2* liver iron concentration assessment using a novel fuzzy c-mean clustering scheme
Abstract
Background: In thalassemia patients, R2* liver iron concentration (LIC) measurement is a common clinical tool for
assessing iron overload and for determining necessary chelator dose and evaluating its efficacy. Despite the
importance of accurate LIC measurement, existing methods suffer from LIC variability, especially at the severe iron
overload range due to inclusion of vessel parts in LIC calculation. In this study, we build upon previous Fuzzy
C-Mean (FCM) clustering work to formulate a scheme with superior performance in segmenting vessel pixels from
the parenchyma. Our method (MIX-FCM) combines our novel 2D-FCM with the existing 1D-FCM algorithm. This
study further assessed possible optimal clustering parameters (OP scheme) and proposed a semi-automatic (SA)
scheme for routine clinical application.
Methods: Segmentation of liver parenchyma and vessels was performed on T2* images and their LIC maps in 196
studies from 147 thalassemia major patients. We used manual segmentation as the reference. 1D-FCM clustering
was performed on the acquired image alone and 2D-FCM used both the acquired image and its LIC data. To
execute the MIX-FCM method, the best outcome (OP-MIX-FCM) was selected from the aforementioned methods
and was compared to the SA-MIX-FCM scheme. We used the percent value of the normalized interquartile range
(nIQR) to its median to evaluate the variability of all methods.
Results: 2D-FCM clustering is more effective than 1D-FCM clustering at the severe overload range only, but inferior
for other ranges (where 1D-FCM provides suitable results). This complementary performance between the two
methods allows MIX-FCM to improve results for all ranges. OP-MIX-FCM clustering error was 2.1 ± 2.3 %, compared
with 10.3 ± 9.9 % and 7.0 ± 11.9 % from 1D- and 2D-FCM clustering, respectively. SA-MIX-FCM result was comparable to
OP-MIX-FCM result, with both schemes showing ability to decrease overall nIQR by approximately 30 %.
Conclusion: Our proposed 2D-FCM algorithm is not as superior to 1D-FCM as hypothesized. In contrast, our MIX-FCM
method benefits from the best of both methods to obtain the highest segmentation accuracy at all ranges. Moreover,
segmentation accuracy of the practical scheme (SA-MIX-FCM) is comparable to segmentation accuracy of the reference
scheme (OP-MIX-FCM). Finally, we confirmed that segmentation is crucial to improving LIC assessments, especially at
the severe iron overload range.