Segmentation of Endothelial Cell Boundaries of Rabbit Aortic Images Using a Machine Learning Approach

This paper presents an automatic detection method for thin boundaries of silver-stained endothelial cells (ECs) imaged using light microscopy of endothelium mono-layers from rabbit aortas. To achieve this, a segmentation technique was developed, which relies on a rich feature space to describe the s...

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Main Authors: Saadia Iftikhar, Andrew R. Bond, Asim I. Wagan, Peter D. Weinberg, Anil A. Bharath
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2011-01-01
Series:International Journal of Biomedical Imaging
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/270247
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author Saadia Iftikhar
Andrew R. Bond
Asim I. Wagan
Peter D. Weinberg
Anil A. Bharath
author_facet Saadia Iftikhar
Andrew R. Bond
Asim I. Wagan
Peter D. Weinberg
Anil A. Bharath
author_sort Saadia Iftikhar
collection DOAJ
description This paper presents an automatic detection method for thin boundaries of silver-stained endothelial cells (ECs) imaged using light microscopy of endothelium mono-layers from rabbit aortas. To achieve this, a segmentation technique was developed, which relies on a rich feature space to describe the spatial neighbourhood of each pixel and employs a Support Vector Machine (SVM) as a classifier. This segmentation approach is compared, using hand-labelled data, to a number of standard segmentation/thresholding methods commonly applied in microscopy. The importance of different features is also assessed using the method of minimum Redundancy, Maximum Relevance (mRMR), and the effect of different SVM kernels is also considered. The results show that the approach suggested in this paper attains much greater accuracy than standard techniques; in our comparisons with manually labelled data, our proposed technique is able to identify boundary pixels to an accuracy of 93%. More significantly, out of a set of 56 regions of image data, 43 regions were binarised to a useful level of accuracy. The results obtained from the image segmentation technique developed here may be used for the study of shape and alignment of ECs, and hence patterns of blood flow, around arterial branches.
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language English
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spelling doaj-art-e2e0138a75364cc8a759d2ba71fd875d2025-08-20T03:21:07ZengWileyInternational Journal of Biomedical Imaging1687-41881687-41962011-01-01201110.1155/2011/270247270247Segmentation of Endothelial Cell Boundaries of Rabbit Aortic Images Using a Machine Learning ApproachSaadia Iftikhar0Andrew R. Bond1Asim I. Wagan2Peter D. Weinberg3Anil A. Bharath4Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UKDepartment of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UKLaboratoire d'InfoRmatique en Image et Systèmes d'information, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, LIRIS INSA De Lyon, 69621 Villeurbanne, FranceDepartment of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UKDepartment of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UKThis paper presents an automatic detection method for thin boundaries of silver-stained endothelial cells (ECs) imaged using light microscopy of endothelium mono-layers from rabbit aortas. To achieve this, a segmentation technique was developed, which relies on a rich feature space to describe the spatial neighbourhood of each pixel and employs a Support Vector Machine (SVM) as a classifier. This segmentation approach is compared, using hand-labelled data, to a number of standard segmentation/thresholding methods commonly applied in microscopy. The importance of different features is also assessed using the method of minimum Redundancy, Maximum Relevance (mRMR), and the effect of different SVM kernels is also considered. The results show that the approach suggested in this paper attains much greater accuracy than standard techniques; in our comparisons with manually labelled data, our proposed technique is able to identify boundary pixels to an accuracy of 93%. More significantly, out of a set of 56 regions of image data, 43 regions were binarised to a useful level of accuracy. The results obtained from the image segmentation technique developed here may be used for the study of shape and alignment of ECs, and hence patterns of blood flow, around arterial branches.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/270247
spellingShingle Saadia Iftikhar
Andrew R. Bond
Asim I. Wagan
Peter D. Weinberg
Anil A. Bharath
Segmentation of Endothelial Cell Boundaries of Rabbit Aortic Images Using a Machine Learning Approach
International Journal of Biomedical Imaging
title Segmentation of Endothelial Cell Boundaries of Rabbit Aortic Images Using a Machine Learning Approach
title_full Segmentation of Endothelial Cell Boundaries of Rabbit Aortic Images Using a Machine Learning Approach
title_fullStr Segmentation of Endothelial Cell Boundaries of Rabbit Aortic Images Using a Machine Learning Approach
title_full_unstemmed Segmentation of Endothelial Cell Boundaries of Rabbit Aortic Images Using a Machine Learning Approach
title_short Segmentation of Endothelial Cell Boundaries of Rabbit Aortic Images Using a Machine Learning Approach
title_sort segmentation of endothelial cell boundaries of rabbit aortic images using a machine learning approach
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/270247
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AT asimiwagan segmentationofendothelialcellboundariesofrabbitaorticimagesusingamachinelearningapproach
AT peterdweinberg segmentationofendothelialcellboundariesofrabbitaorticimagesusingamachinelearningapproach
AT anilabharath segmentationofendothelialcellboundariesofrabbitaorticimagesusingamachinelearningapproach