Fast CEUS image segmentation based on Self Organizing Maps

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) has recently become an important technology for lesion detection and characterization. CEUS is used to investigate the perfusion kinetics in tissue over time, which relates to tissue vascularization. In this paper, we present an interactive segmentation method based on the neural networks, which enables to segment malignant tissue over CEUS sequences. We use Self-Organizing-Maps (SOM), an unsupervised neural network, to project high dimensional data to low dimensional space, named a map of neurons. The algorithm gathers the observations in clusters, respecting the topology of the observations space. This means that a notion of neighborhood between classes is defined. Adjacent observations in variables space belong to the same class or related classes after classification. Thanks to this neighborhood conservation property and associated with suitable feature extraction, this map provides user friendly segmentation tool. It will assist the expert in tumor segmentation with fast and easy intervention. We implement SOM on a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to accelerate treatment. This allows a greater number of iterations and the learning process to converge more precisely. We get a better quality of learning so a better classification. Our approach allows us to identify and delineate lesions accurately. Our results show that this method improves markedly the recognition of liver lesions and opens the way for future precise quantification of contrast enhancement.