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International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing

A Monthly Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology

ISSN 2320–088X

IJCSMC, Vol. 2, Issue. 1, January 2013, pg.22 – 27

REVIEW ARTICLE

Medical Image Segmentation: A Review

Prof. Dinesh D. Patil1, Ms. Sonal G. Deore2
1
S.S.G.B.C.O.E.T. Bhusawal, Dept. Of Computer Engg, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
[email protected]
2
S.S.G.B.C.O.E.T. Bhusawal, Dept. Of Computer Engg, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
[email protected]

Abstract— Image segmentation is the most critical functions in image analysis and processing.
Fundamentally segmentation results affect all the subsequent processes of image analysis such as object
representation and description, feature measurement, and even the following higher level tasks such as object
classification. Hence, image segmentation is the most essential and crucial process for facilitating the
delineation, characterization, and visualization of regions of interest in any medical image. Manual
segmentation of medical image by the radiologist is not only a tedious and time consuming process, but also
not very accurate especially with the increasing medical imaging modalities and unmanageable quantity of
medical images that need to be examined. It becomes therefore necessary to review current methodologies of
image segmentation using automated algorithms that are accurate and require as little user interaction as
possible especially for medical images. In the segmentation process, the anatomical structure or the region of
interest needs to be delineated and extracted out so that it can be viewed individually. In this paper we project
the important place of segmentation of images in extracting information for decision making.

Indexed Terms: - Medical image segmentation, image analysis

I. INTRODUCTION
Medical images play vital role in assisting health care providers to access patients for diagnosis and treatment.
Studying medical images depends mainly on the visual interpretation of the radiologists. However, this
consumes time and usually subjective, depending on the experience of the radiologist. Consequently the use of
computer-aided systems becomes very necessary to overcome these limitations. Artificial Intelligence methods
such as digital image processing when combined with others like machine learning, fuzzy logic and pattern
recognition are so valuable in Image techniques can be grouped under a general framework; Image Engineering
(IE). This is comprised of three layers: image processing (lower layer), image analysis (middle layer), and image
understanding (high layer), as shown in Fig 1. Image segmentation is shown to be the first step and also one of
the most critical tasks of image analysis. Its objective is that of extracting information (represented by data)
from an image via image segmentation, object representation, and feature measurement, as shown in Fig 1.
Result of segmentation; obviously have considerable influence over the accuracy of feature measurement [2].
The computerization of medical image segmentation plays an important role in medical imaging applications. It
has found wide application in different areas such as diagnosis, localization of pathology, study of anatomical
structure, treatment planning, and computer-integrated surgery. However, the variability and the complexity of
the anatomical structures in the human body have resulted in medical image segmentation remaining a hard
problem [3].

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 Prof. Dinesh D. Patil et al, International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing Vol.2 Issue. 1, January- 2013, pg. 22-27

Figure 1: Image engineering and image segmentation [2].

Based on different technologies, image segmentation approaches are currently divided into following
categories, based on two properties of image.
• Detecting Discontinuities
It means to partition an image based on abrupt changes in intensity [1], this includes image segmentation
algorithms like edge detection.
• Detecting Similarities
It means to partition an image into regions that are similar according to a set of predefined criterion [1]; this
includes image segmentation algorithms like Thresholding, region growing, region splitting and merging.
Thresholding is a very common approach used for Region based segmentation where an image represented as
groups of pixels with values greater or equal to the threshold and values less to threshold value.

Clustering is also an approach for region segmentation where an image is partitioned into the sets or clusters
of pixels having similarity in feature space. Region growing is another approach of region segmentation
algorithms where assigned the adjacent pixels or regions to the same segment. There are three types of images
as gray scale, hyper spectral and medical images.

II. SEGMENTATION BASED ON EDGE DETECTION

This method attempts to resolve image segmentation by detecting the edges or pixels between different
regions that have rapid transition in intensity are extracted [1, 5] and linked to form closed object boundaries.
The result is a binary image [2]. Based on theory there are two main edge based segmentation methods- gray
histogram and gradient based method [4].
Edge detection is a well-developed field on its own within image processing. Region boundaries and edges
are closely related, since there is often a sharp adjustment in intensity at the region boundaries. Edge detection
techniques have therefore been used as the base of another segmentation technique. The edges identified by
edge detection are often disconnected. To segment an object from an image however, one needs closed region
boundaries. The desired edges are the boundaries between such objects.
Segmentation methods can also be applied to edges obtained from edge detectors. Lindeberg and
Li [8] developed an integrated method that segments edges into straight and curved edge segments for parts-
based object recognition, based on a minimum description length (MDL) criterion that was optimized by a split-
and-merge-like method with candidate breakpoints obtained from complementary junction cues to obtain more
likely points at which to consider partitions into different segments.

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 Prof. Dinesh D. Patil et al, International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing Vol.2 Issue. 1, January- 2013, pg. 22-27

III. THRESHOLDING METHOD

Thresholding algorithms can be selected manually according to a priori knowledge or automatically by image
information. These algorithms further divided to edge-based, region-based and hybrid. Edge-based algorithms
are related with the edge information. The Structures of an object can be depicted by edge points. Common edge
detection algorithms such as canny edge detector and Laplacian edge detector can be classified to this type of
regions. These algorithms are used to find the edge pixels while eliminating the noise influence.
For example, canny edge detector used the threshold of gradient magnitude to find the potential edge pixels
and suppressed them through the procedures of the non-maximal suppression and hysterics Thresholding. As the
operations used in these algorithms are based on pixels, the detected edges are consisted of discrete pixels and
hence may be incomplete or discontinuous. Hence, it must be apply the post processing like morphological
operation to connect the breaks or eliminate the holes. This method has the ability that can be used to segment
3D image with good accuracy, but the disadvantage of this method is the difficulty to process the images of
textured blob objects.
Image segmentation by Thresholding is a simple but powerful approach for segmenting images having light
objects on dark background [1]. Thresholding technique is based on image space regions i.e. on characteristics
of image [4]. Thresholding operation convert a multilevel image into a binary image i.e., it choose a proper
threshold T, to divide image pixels into several regions and separate objects from background. Any pixel (x, y)
is considered as a part of object if its intensity is greater than or equal to threshold value i.e., f(x, y) ≥T, else
pixel belong to background [3, 11]. As per the selection of Thresholding value, two types of Thresholding
methods are in existence [12], global and local Thresholding. When T is constant, the approach is called global
Thresholding otherwise it is called local Thresholding. Global Thresholding methods can fail when the
background illumination is uneven. In local Thresholding, multiple thresholds are used to compensate for
uneven illumination [8]. Threshold selection is typically done interactively however; it is possible to derive
automatic threshold selection algorithms.
Limitation of Thresholding method is that, only two classes are generated, and it cannot be applied to
multichannel images. In addition, Thresholding does not take into account the spatial characteristics of an image
due to this it is sensitive to noise [4], as both of these artifacts corrupt the histogram of the image, making
separation more difficult.

IV. REGION BASED SEGMENTATION METHODS

Compared to edge detection method, segmentation algorithms based on region are relatively simple and more
immune to noise [4, 6]. Edge based methods partition an image based on rapid changes in intensity near edges
whereas region based methods, partition an image into regions that are similar according to a set of predefined
criteria [10, 1]. Segmentation algorithms based on region mainly include following methods:
1. Region Growing
Region growing is a procedure [2-3] that group’s pixels in whole image into sub regions or larger regions
based on predefined criterion [13]. Region growing can be processed in four steps:-
(i) Select a group of seed pixels in original image [7].
(ii) Select a set of similarity criterion such as grey level intensity or color and set up a stopping rule.
(iii) Grow regions by appending to each seed those neighboring pixels that have predefined properties
similar to seed pixels.
(iv) Stop region growing when no more pixels met the criterion for inclusion in that region (i.e. Size,
likeness between a candidate pixel & pixel grown so far, shape of the region being grown)
2. Region Splitting and Merging
Rather than choosing seed points, user can divide an image into a set of arbitrary unconnected regions and
then merge the regions [2, 4] in an attempt to satisfy the conditions of reasonable image segmentation. Region
splitting and merging is usually implemented with theory based on quad tree data.
Let R represent the entire image region and select a predicate Q
(i) We start with entire image if Q(R) = FALSE [1], we divide the image into quadrants, if Q is false for
any quadrant that is, if Q (Ri) = FALSE, We subdivide the quadrants into sub quadrants and so on
till no further splitting is possible.
(ii) If only splitting is used, the final partition may contain adjacent regions with identical properties. This
drawback can be remedied by allowing merging as well as splitting i.e. merge any adjacent regions
Rj & Rk for which ,Q(Rj U Rk) = TRUE
(iii) Stop when no further merging is possible.

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 Prof. Dinesh D. Patil et al, International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing Vol.2 Issue. 1, January- 2013, pg. 22-27

V. SEGMENTATION BASED ON CLUSTERING

Clustering is an unsupervised learning task, where one needs to identify a finite set of categories known as
clusters to classify pixels [17]. Clustering use no training stages rather train themselves using available data.
Clustering is mainly used when classes are known in advance. A similarity criteria is defined between pixels [2],
and then similar pixels are grouped together to form clusters. The grouping of pixels into clusters is based on the
principle of maximizing the intra class similarity and maximizing the inter class similarity. The quality of a
clustering result depends on both the similarity measure used by the method and its implementation. Clustering
algorithms are classified as hard clustering, k- means clustering, fuzzy clustering, etc.

VI. HYBRID IMAGE SEGMENTATION USING WATERSHED AND FAST REGION MERGING
There is a general segmentation problem as how to segment an image into homogeneous segments such that
after combining two neighbours it gives a heterogeneous segment. There are many techniques for an error-free
image partitions as histogram-based represents the simple probability distribution function of intensity values of
any image. Edge based technique used to detect using differential filter in order of image gradient or Laplacian
and then grouped them into contours represents the surface. In the region-based segmentation technique segment
the image into a set of homogeneous regions then merged them according to certain decision rules [7]. In the
Markov random field based segmentation technique the true image is realized by a Markov or Gibbs random
field with a distribution function. Hybrid segmentation techniques are combined such as edge based and region
based techniques. In this image is firstly partitioned into regions and then merged them using split and merge
technique and after that detected the contours using edge-based technique

TABLE 1 COMPARISON OF IMAGE SEGMENTATION TECHNIQUES

Segmentation Method description Advantages Disadvantages

technique
Thresholding method Requires that the histogram of an image It does not need prior (1) Does not work well for an
has a number of peaks, each corresponds information of the image. image without any obvious
to a region peaks or with broad and flat
valleys
For a wide class of images (2) Does not consider the spatial
satisfying the requirement, details, so cannot guarantee that
this method works very well the segmented regions are
with low computation contiguous
complexity
Clustering Approach Assumes that each region in the image Straightforward for (1) How to determine the
forms a separate cluster in the feature classification and easy for number of clusters (known as
space. Can be generally broken into two implementation cluster validity)
steps: (1) categorize the points in the
feature space into clusters; (2) map the
clusters back to the spatial domain to
form separate regions
(2) Features are often image
dependent and how to select
features so as to obtain
satisfactory segmentation results
remains unclear
(3) Does not utilize spatial
information
Region-based Group pixels into homogeneous regions. Work best when the region (1) Are by nature sequential and
approaches Including region growing, region homogeneity criterion is easy quite expensive both in
splitting, region merging or their to define. They are also more computational time and memory
combination noise immune than edge
detection approach
(2) Region growing has inherent
dependence on the selection of
seed region and the order in
which pixels and regions are
examined

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 Prof. Dinesh D. Patil et al, International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing Vol.2 Issue. 1, January- 2013, pg. 22-27

Segmentation Method description Advantages Disadvantages

technique
(3) The resulting segments by
region splitting appear too
square due to the splitting
scheme
Edge detection Based on the detection of discontinuity, Edge detecting technique is (1) Does not work well with
approaches normally tries to locate points with more the way in which human images in which the edges are
or less abrupt changes in gray level. perceives objects and works ill-defined or there are too many
Usually classified into two categories: well for images having good edges
sequential and parallel contrast between regions
(2) It is not a trivial job to
produce a closed curve or
boundary
(3) Less immune to noise than
other techniques, e.g.,
Thresholding and clustering

VII. CONCLUSION
In this study, the overview of various segmentation methodologies applied for digital image processing is
explained briefly. The study also reviews the research on various research methodologies applied for image
segmentation and various research issues in this field of study. This study aims to provide a simple guide to the
researcher for those carried out their research study in the image segmentation.
Image segmentation has a promising future as the universal segmentation algorithm and has become the focus
of contemporary research. In spite of several decades of research up to now to the knowledge of authors, there is
no universally accepted method for image segmentation, as the result of image segmentation is affected by lots
of factors, such as: homogeneity of images, spatial characteristics of the image continuity, texture, image
content. Thus there is no single method which can be considered good for neither all type of images nor all
methods equally good for a particular type of image. Due to all above factors, image segmentation remains a
challenging problem in image processing and computer vision and is still a pending problem in the world.

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