Efficient Mass Spectrometry Peak Detection by Combining Resolution Enhancement and Image Segmentation

Abstract

Mass spectrometry data may be affected by random noise and baseline drift due to experimental instruments and conditions, posing significant challenges for detecting spectral peaks, particularly when identifying weak and separating overlapping peaks. To increase the sensitivity and enhance the resolution, we propose a mass spectral peak detection algorithm that integrates resolution enhancement and image segmentation. Initially, the extended Mexican hat wavelet is proposed by integrating the peak sharpening method with its wavelet. This approach accurately transforms mass spectra into wavelet space using the continuous wavelet transform. Subsequently, the triangular single-peak thresholding method, a more suitable threshold segmentation approach for spectral analysis, is introduced to identify ridges in the two-dimensional wavelet space. Compared to traditional Otsu and its improved variants, long-tailed single-peaked histograms are more effectively processed by this method with lower computational complexity, enabling faster identification of segmentation thresholds and image segmentation. Ultimately, peak positions are determined by utilizing ridge and valley lines in wavelet space along with the original spectrum. To evaluate the performance of the peak recognition algorithm, two metrics are introduced: the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the balanced F score (F₁ score). When compared to multi-scale peak detection (MSPD), continuous wavelet transform and image segmentation (CWT-IS), the developed approach is more suitable for weak and highly overlapping peaks. The robustness and practicality of the method are verified through peak detection using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectra.

Keywords:

• Continuous wavelet transform
• extended Mexican hat wavelet
• matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS)
• peak detection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [U20A20121 and 61971248], the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province [2020C03064], the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province [LY22F010004], the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control Technology of Zhejiang Province [2021ZEKL11], and the Ningbo Science and Technology Project [2022Z241].