Deep Learning in Biomedical Image Segmentation and Classification: Advancements, Challenges and Applications

A special issue of Journal of Imaging (ISSN 2313-433X). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Imaging".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 17219

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Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL A1B 3X5, Canada
Interests: machine learning; computer vision; biomedical engineering; wireless communications and networks; remote sensing
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to explore the latest advancements, challenges, and applications of deep learning techniques in the field of biomedical image segmentation and classification. Biomedical image analysis plays a crucial role in various medical domains, enabling the accurate identification, segmentation, and classification of structures, organs, and anomalies. Deep learning, with its ability to learn complex features and patterns from large-scale datasets, has revolutionized biomedical image analysis, offering significant improvements in segmentation and classification accuracy and efficiency. This Special Issue welcomes original research papers, review articles, and case studies that present novel deep learning methodologies, architectures, and algorithms, as well as their practical applications and implications in biomedical image segmentation and classification. The collection of contributions will provide a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art techniques, identify challenges and limitations, and pave the way for future research directions in this rapidly evolving field.

Dr. Ebrahim Karami
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • biomedical image segmentation
  • biomedical image classification
  • computer-aided diagnosis
  • deep learning for ultrasound imaging
  • deep learning for infrared imaging
  • deep learning for MRI and FMRI imaging
  • deep learning for X-ray imaging
  • lesion detection with deep learning
  • cancer detection and classification with deep learning
  • biomedical image denoising and enhancement using deep learning
  • deep learning for biomedical object localization

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 6612 KiB  
Article
Semi-Supervised Medical Image Segmentation Based on Deep Consistent Collaborative Learning
by Xin Zhao and Wenqi Wang
J. Imaging 2024, 10(5), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging10050118 - 14 May 2024
Viewed by 1661
Abstract
In the realm of medical image analysis, the cost associated with acquiring accurately labeled data is prohibitively high. To address the issue of label scarcity, semi-supervised learning methods are employed, utilizing unlabeled data alongside a limited set of labeled data. This paper presents [...] Read more.
In the realm of medical image analysis, the cost associated with acquiring accurately labeled data is prohibitively high. To address the issue of label scarcity, semi-supervised learning methods are employed, utilizing unlabeled data alongside a limited set of labeled data. This paper presents a novel semi-supervised medical segmentation framework, DCCLNet (deep consistency collaborative learning UNet), grounded in deep consistent co-learning. The framework synergistically integrates consistency learning from feature and input perturbations, coupled with collaborative training between CNN (convolutional neural networks) and ViT (vision transformer), to capitalize on the learning advantages offered by these two distinct paradigms. Feature perturbation involves the application of auxiliary decoders with varied feature disturbances to the main CNN backbone, enhancing the robustness of the CNN backbone through consistency constraints generated by the auxiliary and main decoders. Input perturbation employs an MT (mean teacher) architecture wherein the main network serves as the student model guided by a teacher model subjected to input perturbations. Collaborative training aims to improve the accuracy of the main networks by encouraging mutual learning between the CNN and ViT. Experiments conducted on publicly available datasets for ACDC (automated cardiac diagnosis challenge) and Prostate datasets yielded Dice coefficients of 0.890 and 0.812, respectively. Additionally, comprehensive ablation studies were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of each methodological contribution in this study. Full article
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14 pages, 4516 KiB  
Article
Elevating Chest X-ray Image Super-Resolution with Residual Network Enhancement
by Anudari Khishigdelger, Ahmed Salem and Hyun-Soo Kang
J. Imaging 2024, 10(3), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging10030064 - 4 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2366
Abstract
Chest X-ray (CXR) imaging plays a pivotal role in diagnosing various pulmonary diseases, which account for a significant portion of the global mortality rate, as recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). Medical practitioners routinely depend on CXR images to identify anomalies and [...] Read more.
Chest X-ray (CXR) imaging plays a pivotal role in diagnosing various pulmonary diseases, which account for a significant portion of the global mortality rate, as recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). Medical practitioners routinely depend on CXR images to identify anomalies and make critical clinical decisions. Dramatic improvements in super-resolution (SR) have been achieved by applying deep learning techniques. However, some SR methods are very difficult to utilize due to their low-resolution inputs and features containing abundant low-frequency information, similar to the case of X-ray image super-resolution. In this paper, we introduce an advanced deep learning-based SR approach that incorporates the innovative residual-in-residual (RIR) structure to augment the diagnostic potential of CXR imaging. Specifically, we propose forming a light network consisting of residual groups built by residual blocks, with multiple skip connections to facilitate the efficient bypassing of abundant low-frequency information through multiple skip connections. This approach allows the main network to concentrate on learning high-frequency information. In addition, we adopted the dense feature fusion within residual groups and designed high parallel residual blocks for better feature extraction. Our proposed methods exhibit superior performance compared to existing state-of-the-art (SOTA) SR methods, delivering enhanced accuracy and notable visual improvements, as evidenced by our results. Full article
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17 pages, 1236 KiB  
Article
A CNN Hyperparameters Optimization Based on Particle Swarm Optimization for Mammography Breast Cancer Classification
by Khadija Aguerchi, Younes Jabrane, Maryam Habba and Amir Hajjam El Hassani
J. Imaging 2024, 10(2), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging10020030 - 24 Jan 2024
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3163
Abstract
Breast cancer is considered one of the most-common types of cancers among females in the world, with a high mortality rate. Medical imaging is still one of the most-reliable tools to detect breast cancer. Unfortunately, manual image detection takes much time. This paper [...] Read more.
Breast cancer is considered one of the most-common types of cancers among females in the world, with a high mortality rate. Medical imaging is still one of the most-reliable tools to detect breast cancer. Unfortunately, manual image detection takes much time. This paper proposes a new deep learning method based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Convolutional Neural Networks are widely used for image classification. However, the determination process for accurate hyperparameters and architectures is still a challenging task. In this work, a highly accurate CNN model to detect breast cancer by mammography was developed. The proposed method is based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm in order to look for suitable hyperparameters and the architecture for the CNN model. The CNN model using PSO achieved success rates of 98.23% and 97.98% on the DDSM and MIAS datasets, respectively. The experimental results proved that the proposed CNN model gave the best accuracy values in comparison with other studies in the field. As a result, CNN models for mammography classification can now be created automatically. The proposed method can be considered as a powerful technique for breast cancer prediction. Full article
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15 pages, 1596 KiB  
Article
Lesion Detection in Optical Coherence Tomography with Transformer-Enhanced Detector
by Hanya Ahmed, Qianni Zhang, Ferranti Wong, Robert Donnan and Akram Alomainy
J. Imaging 2023, 9(11), 244; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging9110244 - 7 Nov 2023
Viewed by 2028
Abstract
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging imaging tool in healthcare with common applications in ophthalmology for the detection of retinal diseases and in dentistry for the early detection of tooth decay. Speckle noise is ubiquitous in OCT images, which can hinder diagnosis [...] Read more.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging imaging tool in healthcare with common applications in ophthalmology for the detection of retinal diseases and in dentistry for the early detection of tooth decay. Speckle noise is ubiquitous in OCT images, which can hinder diagnosis by clinicians. In this paper, a region-based, deep learning framework for the detection of anomalies is proposed for OCT-acquired images. The core of the framework is Transformer-Enhanced Detection (TED), which includes attention gates (AGs) to ensure focus is placed on the foreground while identifying and removing noise artifacts as anomalies. TED was designed to detect the different types of anomalies commonly present in OCT images for diagnostic purposes and thus aid clinical interpretation. Extensive quantitative evaluations were performed to measure the performance of TED against current, widely known, deep learning detection algorithms. Three different datasets were tested: two dental and one CT (hosting scans of lung nodules, livers, etc.). The results showed that the approach verifiably detected tooth decay and numerous lesions across two modalities, achieving superior performance compared to several well-known algorithms. The proposed method improved the accuracy of detection by 16–22% and the Intersection over Union (IOU) by 10% for both dentistry datasets. For the CT dataset, the performance metrics were similarly improved by 9% and 20%, respectively. Full article
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13 pages, 1782 KiB  
Brief Report
Brain Age Prediction Using 2D Projections Based on Higher-Order Statistical Moments and Eigenslices from 3D Magnetic Resonance Imaging Volumes
by Johan Jönemo and Anders Eklund
J. Imaging 2023, 9(12), 271; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging9120271 - 6 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1862
Abstract
Brain age prediction from 3D MRI volumes using deep learning has recently become a popular research topic, as brain age has been shown to be an important biomarker. Training deep networks can be very computationally demanding for large datasets like the U.K. Biobank [...] Read more.
Brain age prediction from 3D MRI volumes using deep learning has recently become a popular research topic, as brain age has been shown to be an important biomarker. Training deep networks can be very computationally demanding for large datasets like the U.K. Biobank (currently 29,035 subjects). In our previous work, it was demonstrated that using a few 2D projections (mean and standard deviation along three axes) instead of each full 3D volume leads to much faster training at the cost of a reduction in prediction accuracy. Here, we investigated if another set of 2D projections, based on higher-order statistical central moments and eigenslices, leads to a higher accuracy. Our results show that higher-order moments do not lead to a higher accuracy, but that eigenslices provide a small improvement. We also show that an ensemble of such models provides further improvement. Full article
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9 pages, 2411 KiB  
Brief Report
WindowNet: Learnable Windows for Chest X-ray Classification
by Alessandro Wollek, Sardi Hyska, Bastian Sabel, Michael Ingrisch and Tobias Lasser
J. Imaging 2023, 9(12), 270; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging9120270 - 6 Dec 2023
Viewed by 3151
Abstract
Public chest X-ray (CXR) data sets are commonly compressed to a lower bit depth to reduce their size, potentially hiding subtle diagnostic features. In contrast, radiologists apply a windowing operation to the uncompressed image to enhance such subtle features. While it has been [...] Read more.
Public chest X-ray (CXR) data sets are commonly compressed to a lower bit depth to reduce their size, potentially hiding subtle diagnostic features. In contrast, radiologists apply a windowing operation to the uncompressed image to enhance such subtle features. While it has been shown that windowing improves classification performance on computed tomography (CT) images, the impact of such an operation on CXR classification performance remains unclear. In this study, we show that windowing strongly improves the CXR classification performance of machine learning models and propose WindowNet, a model that learns multiple optimal window settings. Our model achieved an average AUC score of 0.812 compared with the 0.759 score of a commonly used architecture without windowing capabilities on the MIMIC data set. Full article
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9 pages, 2417 KiB  
Brief Report
Placental Vessel Segmentation Using Pix2pix Compared to U-Net
by Anouk van der Schot, Esther Sikkel, Marèll Niekolaas, Marc Spaanderman and Guido de Jong
J. Imaging 2023, 9(10), 226; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging9100226 - 16 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1885
Abstract
Computer-assisted technologies have made significant progress in fetoscopic laser surgery, including placental vessel segmentation. However, the intra- and inter-procedure variabilities in the state-of-the-art segmentation methods remain a significant hurdle. To address this, we investigated the use of conditional generative adversarial networks (cGANs) for [...] Read more.
Computer-assisted technologies have made significant progress in fetoscopic laser surgery, including placental vessel segmentation. However, the intra- and inter-procedure variabilities in the state-of-the-art segmentation methods remain a significant hurdle. To address this, we investigated the use of conditional generative adversarial networks (cGANs) for fetoscopic image segmentation and compared their performance with the benchmark U-Net technique for placental vessel segmentation. Two deep-learning models, U-Net and pix2pix (a popular cGAN model), were trained and evaluated using a publicly available dataset and an internal validation set. The overall results showed that the pix2pix model outperformed the U-Net model, with a Dice score of 0.80 [0.70; 0.86] versus 0.75 [0.0.60; 0.84] (p-value < 0.01) and an Intersection over Union (IoU) score of 0.70 [0.61; 0.77] compared to 0.66 [0.53; 0.75] (p-value < 0.01), respectively. The internal validation dataset further validated the superiority of the pix2pix model, achieving Dice and IoU scores of 0.68 [0.53; 0.79] and 0.59 [0.49; 0.69] (p-value < 0.01), respectively, while the U-Net model obtained scores of 0.53 [0.49; 0.64] and 0.49 [0.17; 0.56], respectively. This study successfully compared U-Net and pix2pix models for placental vessel segmentation in fetoscopic images, demonstrating improved results with the cGAN-based approach. However, the challenge of achieving generalizability still needs to be addressed. Full article
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