TY - JOUR
T1 - A method for automatic segmentation of nuclei in phase-contrast images based on intensity, convexity and texture
AU - Dewan, M. Ali Akber
AU - Ahmad, M. Omair
AU - Swamy, M. N.S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2007-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2014/10/1
Y1 - 2014/10/1
N2 - This paper presents a method for automatic segmentation of nuclei in phase-contrast images using the intensity, convexity and texture of the nuclei. The proposed method consists of three main stages: preprocessing, h-maxima transformation-based marker controlled watershed segmentation (h-TMC), and texture analysis. In the preprocessing stage, a top-hat filter is used to increase the contrast and suppress the non-uniform illumination, shading, and other imaging artifacts in the input image. The nuclei segmentation stage consists of a distance transformation, h-maxima transformation and watershed segmentation. These transformations utilize the intensity information and the convexity property of the nucleus for the purpose of detecting a single marker in every nucleus; these markers are then used in the h-TMC watershed algorithm to obtain segments of the nuclei. However, dust particles, imaging artifacts, or prolonged cell cytoplasm may falsely be segmented as nuclei at this stage, and thus may lead to an inaccurate analysis of the cell image. In order to identify and remove these non-nuclei segments, in the third stage a texture analysis is performed, that uses six of the Haralick measures along with the AdaBoost algorithm. The novelty of the proposed method is that it introduces a systematic framework that utilizes intensity, convexity, and texture information to achieve a high accuracy for automatic segmentation of nuclei in the phase-contrast images. Extensive experiments are performed demonstrating the superior performance ({\rm precision} = 0.948; {\rm recall} = 0.924; F-{1}\hbox{-}{\rm measure} = 0.936; validation based on {\sim}4850 manually-labeled nuclei) of the proposed method.
AB - This paper presents a method for automatic segmentation of nuclei in phase-contrast images using the intensity, convexity and texture of the nuclei. The proposed method consists of three main stages: preprocessing, h-maxima transformation-based marker controlled watershed segmentation (h-TMC), and texture analysis. In the preprocessing stage, a top-hat filter is used to increase the contrast and suppress the non-uniform illumination, shading, and other imaging artifacts in the input image. The nuclei segmentation stage consists of a distance transformation, h-maxima transformation and watershed segmentation. These transformations utilize the intensity information and the convexity property of the nucleus for the purpose of detecting a single marker in every nucleus; these markers are then used in the h-TMC watershed algorithm to obtain segments of the nuclei. However, dust particles, imaging artifacts, or prolonged cell cytoplasm may falsely be segmented as nuclei at this stage, and thus may lead to an inaccurate analysis of the cell image. In order to identify and remove these non-nuclei segments, in the third stage a texture analysis is performed, that uses six of the Haralick measures along with the AdaBoost algorithm. The novelty of the proposed method is that it introduces a systematic framework that utilizes intensity, convexity, and texture information to achieve a high accuracy for automatic segmentation of nuclei in the phase-contrast images. Extensive experiments are performed demonstrating the superior performance ({\rm precision} = 0.948; {\rm recall} = 0.924; F-{1}\hbox{-}{\rm measure} = 0.936; validation based on {\sim}4850 manually-labeled nuclei) of the proposed method.
KW - AdaBoost algorithm
KW - Haralick features
KW - nuclei clustering
KW - phase-contrast image
KW - segmentation of nuclei
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84910147007&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TBCAS.2013.2294184
DO - 10.1109/TBCAS.2013.2294184
M3 - Journal Article
C2 - 25388879
AN - SCOPUS:84910147007
SN - 1932-4545
VL - 8
SP - 716
EP - 728
JO - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
JF - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
IS - 5
M1 - 6762958
ER -