Potential of Interpretation-Support System for Liver CT Images

For rapidly increasing amount of medical images, it is difficult for radiologist to interpretate the medical images fastly and for sufficient time. We investigated whether liver CT image has good features to be analyzed by computer algorithm, We examed the CT images of liver tumors (Hepetocellular carcinomas; HCCs) and searched any potential morphologic characteristics to be analyzed by computer algorithms. On unenhanced CT, HCCs appeared hypodense After enhancement, most HCCs were hyperdense, and then. as a consequence of rapid washout, HCCS became hypodense compared with the liver parenchyma. Most CT images of HCCs showed synchronous phase-specific.morphologic features. We applied various edge detection filters to these images and some filters showed favorable performance in the detection of tile edge of liver and HCC. Therefore, theses features seems to be analyzed by computer algorithms effectively.Further studies may be warranted.