A Machine-Learning Algorithm Toward Color Analysis for Chronic Liver Disease Classification, Employing Ultrasound Shear Wave Elastography

Ilias Gatos, Stavros Tsantis, Stavros Spiliopoulos, Dimitris Karnabatidis, Ioannis Theotokas, Pavlos Zoumpoulis, Thanasis Loupas, John D. Hazle, George C. Kagadis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

74 Scopus citations

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to employ a computer-aided diagnosis system that classifies chronic liver disease (CLD) using ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) imaging, with a stiffness value-clustering and machine-learning algorithm. A clinical data set of 126 patients (56 healthy controls, 70 with CLD) was analyzed. First, an RGB-to-stiffness inverse mapping technique was employed. A five-cluster segmentation was then performed associating corresponding different-color regions with certain stiffness value ranges acquired from the SWE manufacturer-provided color bar. Subsequently, 35 features (7 for each cluster), indicative of physical characteristics existing within the SWE image, were extracted. A stepwise regression analysis toward feature reduction was used to derive a reduced feature subset that was fed into the support vector machine classification algorithm to classify CLD from healthy cases. The highest accuracy in classification of healthy to CLD subject discrimination from the support vector machine model was 87.3% with sensitivity and specificity values of 93.5% and 81.2%, respectively. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis gave an area under the curve value of 0.87 (confidence interval: 0.77–0.92). A machine-learning algorithm that quantifies color information in terms of stiffness values from SWE images and discriminates CLD from healthy cases is introduced. New objective parameters and criteria for CLD diagnosis employing SWE images provided by the present study can be considered an important step toward color-based interpretation, and could assist radiologists’ diagnostic performance on a daily basis after being installed in a PC and employed retrospectively, immediately after the examination.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1797-1810
Number of pages14
JournalUltrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume43
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2017

Keywords

  • Classifier design
  • Computer-aided diagnosis
  • Fibrosis
  • Shear wave elastography
  • Ultrasonics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
  • Biophysics
  • Acoustics and Ultrasonics

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