Automatic Skin Tumour Segmentation Using Prioritized Patch Based Region – A Novel Comparative Technique

Abstract

Skin tumour detection plays a key factor in medical research. Nowadays, tumour detection process is of crucial importance as the number of persons affected is increasing substantially. The aim of this research work is to develop a new approach for efficient image enhancement and tumour detection from other unaffected regions on computed tomographic skin images. This work is mainly related to medical application methods on computed tomography (CT) skin tumour images that have been designed and implemented efficiently. The initial method, which was based on the quality of image, enhanced the medical image performance. Normally, these images are very noise sensitive and create difficulty in handling procedures. Proper care has to be taken which involves the introduction of pre-processing algorithms like enhancement techniques and filters. According to this, Anisotropic Diffusion Filtering (ADF) followed by Recursive Mean Separate Histogram Equalization (RMSHE) algorithm was introduced to improve the contrast of tumour images. In the second method, Public Contour Metric Based Segmentation (PCMBS) Mapping and Prioritized Patch Based Region Segmentation (PPBRS) Algorithm is proposed for skin tumour segmentation. These techniques are performed in CT skin tumour image which are benign or malignant. Overall accuracy of 98.5% and 95.4% is obtained for various benign and malignant tumours, respectively, in MATLAB 2018a software.

KEYWORDS:

• Anisotropic Diffusion Filter (ADF)
• Computed tomography
• Proposed Prioritized Patch Based Region Segmentation (PPBRS) Algorithm
• Proposed Public Contour Metric Based Segmentation (PCMBS) mapping
• Recursive Mean Separate Histogram Equalization (RMSHE)
• Skin tumour

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the International Cancer Centre (ICC), Neyyoor, Tamil Nadu for providing skin tumour database used in this research work for their critical role in the creation of the free public available ISIC skin tumour database.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

A. Ashwini

Ashwini A ME, (PhD) received her bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering and master degree in communication and networking from Ponjesly College of Engineering, Nagercoil under Anna University, Chennai. She is currently pursuing her PhD degree in Anna University Chennai, India. She has published many papers in journal and participated in international conferences. Her research interests include medical image processing, nanotechnology, image segmentation.

S. Murugan

Murugan S obtained his BE degree in electronics and instrumentation engineering in 2002 from MS University and ME degree in control and instrumentation engineering in 2005 from Anna University, Chennai. He received PhD degree from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Anna University, Chennai in 2018. He is currently a professor in the Department of EEE, Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli, India. His current research interests include control system, power electronics, electrical drives and soft computing. Email: [email protected]