ISBN: 978-15-08772460-24

Date: 8.3.2015
PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RECENT INNOVATIONS IN ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Thyroid Nodule Detection in Magnetic Resonance

Images
Prof. Muthukumar Subramanyam
Head of the department,
Department Of Computer Science and Engineering,
Dhirajlal Gandhi College of Technology,
Salem, India,
sm.cite.msu@gmail.com

Ms. Yagavi. G
PG Scholar,
Department Of Computer Science and Engineering,
Dhirajlal Gandhi College of Technology,
Salem, India,
yagavi.g@gmail.com

AbstractThyroid nodule detection and classification in

magnetic resonance images is the main objective of this
research. Images are preprocessed by using second order
laplacian filter. By using mask, the images are sharpened and
made suitable for segmentation. Region Based Active Contour
segmentation technique is used to segment the thyroid nodule
in magnetic resonance imaging scans. By using this
segmentation, the foreground and background regions are
separated semi-automatically on the pre-processed magnetic
resonance images. The exact location of the defected area is
identified by using morphological operations. After that, the
defected part is extracted for further analysis. By using the
contour plot, the location of the thyroid nodule is confirmed in
magnetic resonance images. Then the classification stage of
thyroid nodule determines whether it is in benign or malignant
thyroid.

image and made suitable for segmentation. Secondly extract

the nodule region from the magnetic resonance image by
region based active contour segmentation method. Thirdly,
classification stage of thyroid nodule determines whether it
is in benign or malignant thyroid.

KeywordsThyroid
benign; malignant.

Thyroid can be classified as benign or malignant thyroid

and hypo or hyper thyroid. These types can be identifying in
the classification stage.

I.

Nodule;

laplacian

filter;

RBAC;

Fig.1 Thyroid Nodule image

INTRODUCTION

Thyroid nodule refers to abnormal growth that forms

lump in the thyroid gland which is located in the front of the
neck, below the Adam's apple. It is shaped like a butterfly
and enclose around the trachea [1]. There are two different
techniques for identification of thyroid nodules such as
invasive and non invasive. Non invasive techniques are one
of the methods by which diagnosis is carried out without
harming the patient and it is painless scheme. The major
challenges for the medical community are the identification
of benign and malignant thyroid nodules. There are many
modalities to detect the thyroid nodules such as
CT/MRI/Ultrasound images. US imaging is frequently used
to detect and classify the abnormalities of the thyroid
nodules. When compare to CT scan and ultrasound images,
MRI gives high resolution. MRI images are used to evaluate
the shape and size of the thyroid nodule and detect the
minute area of defected thyroid part.
In the present study, a new computer based approach has
been developed towards the automatic detection of thyroid
nodules and it forward to classification stage and determine
the nodule, in terms of benign or malignant. The proposed
method comprises of three important stages: preprocessing,
segmentation and classification. Second order laplacian
filter is used for pre-processing. This filter sharpened the

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Benign thyroid

Malignant thyroid

Thyroid types
Hypo thyroid

Hyper thyroid
Fig.2 Thyroid types

II. RELATED WORK

In thyroid nodule segmentation and classification
research comprises of four important stages: preprocessing,
feature extraction, segmentation and, classification stage [7].
In preprocessing stage, speckle noise is very difficult to
reduce or remove. By using Rayleigh trimmed anisotropic
diffusion filter, it can reduce the speckled noise in the
original image. Alpha trimmed mean filter is to suppress the
primary noise in the image. Diffusion filter is performed to
make the filter result robust and provides high SNR value.

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In segmentation stage, watershed algorithm is used to
segment the defected area. This segmentation is based on
region based segmentation, it makes a gap in the surface of
each minimum area, and water will slowly submerge in the
surface from those holes. In feature extraction stage, GLCM
features are calculated such as energy, correlation, entropy
etc,. Finally, classification is done by artificial neural
network to determine the thyroid in which stage.
In automated thyroid nodule segmentation algorithm for
ultrasound image research, detection of boundaries is
required for diagnosis of thyroid disease. Detection
algorithm comprises of three stages: contrast enhancement,
image smoothening, edge based active contour
segmentation. In preprocessing stage, contrast enhancement
and image smoothening is done to reduce the speckled noise
in ultrasound image. To detecting the boundaries of the
thyroid nodule is done by using edge based segmentation
algorithm. The classification technique is used to determine
the benign or malignant thyroid [6].

boundaries of thyroid nodule. Finding ideal edge is

equivalent to finding the point where derivative is maximum
or minimum. First order operators (using first derivative
measurements) are mainly good at finding edges in thyroid
images. The edge enhancement operators such as Sobel and
Roberts filters are the example of first order filters, at times
known as gradient filters.
The Laplacian operator is an example of a second order
derivative method of enhancement of images. It is mainly
good at finding the fine detail in an input image. Any
feature with a sharp discontinuity like noise will be
enhanced by a Laplacian operator. By moving mask over
the pixel of images to finding the fine details in MRI
images. Thus, one application of a Laplacian operator is to
restore fine details to an image which has been smoothed to
remove or reduce the noise. Mainly median operator is often
used to remove noise in an image. Finally, preprocessing is
done on an input thyroid image and finding the fine details
in an image and made the image suitable for next
segmentation stage.

In evaluation of thyroid nodule malignancy risk in

ultrasound image research is comprises of three stages:
preprocessing, classification and segmentation. Wavelet
filter is used in preprocessing stage; it is the better technique
to handle the different type of noise which is present in the
image. Probabilistic neural network is used to classify the
thyroid nodule and finally segmentation is done on the
classified image by using fuzzy C (clustering) method [15].
In hypo and hyper thyroid using MLPN network
research is comprises three stages: image filtering,
segmentation, classification. Filters are used to remove
noise from image. Median filter is used to remove the salt
and pepper noise in the ultrasound images. Thresholding
technique is used to segment the image. Multilayer
perception neural network is used for classification and it
has one input layer, one output layer, two or more hidden
layer. Back propagation rule is used in MLPN network [16].
III.

PROPOSED METHOD

A. Pre-Processing
Figure 3 shows the block diagram of the proposed
method for thyroid nodule detection and classification.
Initially the input magnetic resonance images are sharpening
to detect the boundary of the thyroid image in
preprocessing. After pre-processing the images are
segmented by using two different algorithms such as region
based active contour and single seeded region growing
segmentation technique. After segmenting the thyroid
nodule, the exact region of thyroid is refined. Finally, the
classification method is used to find the thyroid stage
whether it is benign or/and malignant.
The main objective of preprocessing stage is to reduce or
remove the noise that occurs in an input magnetic resonance
images. Second order laplacian filter is used to sharp the

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Fig.3 Block diagram for detection and classification of thyroid nodule

image

B. Region based active contour segmentation

Image segmentation is a fundamental task in image
processing for partitioning the image features into its
objects. One way of segmentation is the use of active
contours and level sets proposed by Chan and Vese [1].
Active contour methods have become very popular in recent
years. The idea at the back active contours for image
segmentation is quite easy. The user specifies an initial

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ISBN: 978-15-08772460-24
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PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RECENT INNOVATIONS IN ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
guess for the contour, which is then stirred by image driven
forces to the boundaries of the desired objects. The curve
formed by the connected edge point traces the active
contour (outline). This segmentation is done automatically
based on the intensity of the pixels. There are two model;
internal forces and external forces. The internal forces
define within the curves, designed to keep the model smooth
during the bend process. The external forces which are
compute from the underlying data are defined to move the
model towards the object boundary. The basic idea behind
the ACM is to evolve a curve or a surface defined within an
image from some arbitrary initial shape towards its interior
normal direction and stops it on the object boundary. There
are two methods of active contour; Edge based Active
Contour and Region Based Active Contour.
Edge-based Active Contour method uses an edge
detector, which is needy on the image gradient and it utilize
image gradients in order to identify object boundaries. It is
looks for discontinuities in the intensity of an image. The
foreground and background can be heterogeneous and a
correct segmentation can still be achieved in certain cases.
More recently, work is instead of finding the edge, it finds
foreground and background regions and find an energy
optimum where the model best fits the image. It looks for
uniformity within a sub region, based on desired property
such as intensity, color and texture. RBAC use similarity
among pixels to find dissimilar regions. Region based
segmentation methods have only two basic operations:
splitting and merging. If neighboring pixels have similar
intensity values then these pixels postulates within the same
region.

6.

Finally, separate the defected part from the

background region.

After the segmentation is done, the image is move

forward to the classification stage to determine whether the
thyroid nodule is benign or malignant.
IV.

SYSTEM FLOW DIAGRAM

Figure 4 shows the system flow diagram of thyroid

nodule detection and classification in magnetic resonance
images. Initially, collect the images from the database and
apply the second order laplacian filter to sharpening the
image. The sharpened images are segmented using the
region based active contour segmentation technique and it
separates foreground from background automatically by
the intensity of pixel. The defected part of thyroid is
identified and extracted by using morphological
operations. After the defection of thyroid is confirmed
then it moves to the classification stage and identified the
thyroid state.

The edge-based method is highly sensitive to the noise

and dependent on initial curve location (the initial curve
must be placed near the edges). On the other hand, regionbased method has insensitivity to noise and robustness to
initial curve placement [1]. Region based active contour
segmentation technique is used automatically to segment the
defected area of thyroid nodule.
Fig. 4 System flow diagram

The algorithm of the proposed automatic Region based

active contour algorithm can be summarized as given
below:
1.

2.
3.

4.
5.

Determine the threshold value and set an initial

pixel based on intensity. Iteratively modify them
(shrinking/expansion)
according
to
image
constraints.
Check the high intensity pixel.
If intensity of pixels is similar, then they are labeled
as defected part. Otherwise they are labeled as
normal part.
Determine new similar intensity of pixels of
defected part.
Go to Step 2 until no more intensity pixel can be
added to the defected part.

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V. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
The performance of the research, detection of thyroid
nodule in the MRI scan image is performed by conducting
a survey among different users. The users were asked to
evaluate the result obtained based on an accuracy scale
ranging from low to excellent. Each user evaluates
individually and finally the average of the evaluation
based on the quality of the result obtained is taken as the
performance measure. This measure determines whether
the research done is accuracy or not.
By evaluating the individual users results by
verifying the comments they are given. The accuracy scale
can be given such as low, medium, good, excellent.

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PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RECENT INNOVATIONS IN ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

RANGE
0-25%

ACCURACY SCALE
LOW

25-50%

MEDIUM

50-75%

GOOD

75-100%

EXCELLENT
Table 1 Accuracy scale

USER

EVALUATION

USER 1

65%

USER 2

90%

USER 3

82%

USER 4

69%

USER 5

77%

USER 6

79%

USER 7

87%

USER 8

95%

USER 9

94%

(d)

(e)

(f)

Fig.5 Results of the proposed method: (a) The input image of thyroid
nodule; (b) Gray scale image of thyroid nodule; (c) Second order laplacian
filter is applied on gray scale image; (d) Segmentation is done by Region
based active contour technique; (e) Extraction of segmented thyroid
nodule; (f) Identification of thyroid nodule.

Table 2 Performance evaluation

VII.

Finally, the average accuracy is evaluated as a

performance measure seems to be 82% which is an excellent
measure. This confirms that the research carried out is
excellent in terms of its accuracy.
VI.

(c)

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

The thyroid nodule detection is done by using

segmentation technique. The input images are
preprocessed by using sharpening filter and make the
image suitable for segmentation technique. Fig (a) shows
the input image and those images converted to gray scale
image because all the input images are to be preprocessed
in gray scale image Fig (b). After that second order
laplacian filter is used to sharpening the image to find the
minute part of the defected area of thyroid nodule Fig(c).
Fig (d) shows the segmented part of the thyroid using
RBAC segmentation. Fig (e) shows the thyroid nodule
that is extracted from the segmented images. The defected
area of thyroid nodule is identified and confirmed and it is
highlighted in green color as shown in the Fig (f).

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK

A. Conclusion
The presences of thyroid nodule in MRI images are
segmented with RBAC segmentation technique. This
algorithm separates the foreground and background region
automatically by the intensity of the pixels. The defected
area of thyroid nodule is segmented for the analysis. After
the region of thyroid is segmented, the morphologic al
operations are used to extract the defected portion
automatically.
B. Future work
In future, this work can be extended by using another
segmentation algorithm as single seeded region growing
algorithm (SSRG). This algorithm is performed on that
segmented images to find the minute defected part of the
thyroid nodule. By choosing the single seed is very
difficult. Single seed is extending by the similarity of the
neighboring pixel. Then segmented part of thyroid image
is moves to the classification method for determining the
thyroid stage. Mostly small percentages of thyroid nodules
are affected as thyroid cancer. In future need to classify
the thyroid nodule stage whether it is begin or malignant.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

(a)

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(b)

The author would like to thank the respective Head of

the Institution, Head of the Department and Faculty
members for giving valuable advices and providing
technical support.

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