Computer-Aided-Diagnosis (CAD) for colposcopy

Holger Lange, Daron Gale Ferris

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Uterine cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. Colposcopy is a diagnostic method, whereby a physician (colposcopist) visually inspects the lower genital tract (cervix, vulva and vagina), with special emphasis on the subjective appearance of metaplastic epithelium comprising the transformation zone on the cervix. Cervical cancer precursor lesions and invasive cancer exhibit certain distinctly abnormal morphologic features. Lesion characteristics such as margin; color or opacity; blood vessel caliber, intercapillary spacing and distribution; and contour are considered by colposcopists to derive a clinical diagnosis. Clinicians and academia have suggested and shown proof of concept that automated image analysis of cervical imagery can be used for cervical cancer screening and diagnosis, having the potential to have a direct impact on improving women's health care and reducing associated costs. STI Medical Systems is developing a Computer-Aided-Diagnosis (CAD) system for colposcopy - ColpoCAD™. At the heart of ColpoCAD™ is a complex multi-sensor, multi-data and multi-feature image analysis system. A functional description is presented of the envisioned ColpoCAD™ system, broken down into: Modality Data Management System, Image Enhancement, Feature Extraction, Reference Database, and Diagnosis and directed Biopsies. The system design and development process of the image analysis system is outlined. The system design provides a modular and open architecture built on feature based processing. The core feature set includes the visual features used by colposcopists. This feature set can be extended to include new features introduced by new instrument technologies, like fluorescence and impedance, and any other plausible feature that can be extracted from the cervical data. Preliminary results of our research on detecting the three most important features: blood vessel structures, acetowhite regions and lesion margins are shown. As this is a new and very complex field in medical image processing, the hope is that this paper can provide a framework and basis to encourage and facilitate collaboration and discussion between industry, academia, and medical practitioners.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number08
Pages (from-to)71-84
Number of pages14
JournalProgress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
Volume5747
Issue numberI
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 25 2005
EventMedical Imaging 2005 - Image Processing - San Diego, CA, United States
Duration: Feb 13 2005Feb 17 2005

Keywords

  • Automated image analysis
  • Colposcopy
  • Computer-Aided-Diagnosis (CAD)
  • Uterine cervical cancer

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Biomaterials
  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

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