Automatic method for quantitative automatic evaluation in dynamic renal scintilography images

Renal insufficiency is one of the most frequent health problems in Brazil and in the world. In some cases, the renal insufficiency symptoms are not easily perceived, and the disease may evolute to a more serious stage. Nuclear medicine is a specialty for human body image acquisition based on the use of radioisotopes for the analysis of some organ functionalities. Renal scintigraphy is an image based examination used for the diagnosing of problems in renal functions. This work presents an automatic method for quantitative analysis based on renal scintigraphy. The proposed methodology is capable of segmenting regions in the image associated with kidney, background, and aorta. Based on parameters obtained from these segmented images, it is possible to compute the glomerular filtration rate, renogram and renal transit time by deconvolution. The result obtained by the methodology were compared with results of a manual analysis made by a specialist, reaching promising results to be used in a clinical use.

[1]  J. Grinyó,et al.  MAG3 renogram deconvolution in kidney transplantation: utility of the measurement of initial tracer uptake. , 1997, Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine.

[2]  Yung-Sheng Chen,et al.  Fully Automatic Region of Interest Selection in Glomerular Filtration Rate Estimation from 99mTc-DTPA Renogram , 2011, Journal of Digital Imaging.

[3]  Jacob Benesty,et al.  Pearson Correlation Coefficient , 2009 .

[4]  A. Taylor,et al.  Clinical applications of renal scintigraphy. , 1995, AJR. American journal of roentgenology.

[5]  Theodora Varvarigou,et al.  A Method for Improving Renogram Production and Detection of Renal Pelvis using Mathematical Morphology on Scintigraphic Images , 2012 .

[6]  M. Marcuzzo,et al.  Quantitative Parameters for the Assessment of Renal Scintigraphic Images , 2007, 2007 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[7]  Tom Greene,et al.  Assessing kidney function--measured and estimated glomerular filtration rate. , 2006, The New England journal of medicine.

[8]  Matilda Landgren,et al.  Automatic Compartment Modelling and Segmentation for Dynamical Renal Scintigraphies , 2011, SCIA.

[9]  Sergei Vassilvitskii,et al.  k-means++: the advantages of careful seeding , 2007, SODA '07.

[10]  Martin Samal,et al.  International Scientific Committee of Radionuclides in Nephrourology (ISCORN) consensus on renal transit time measurements. , 2008, Seminars in nuclear medicine.

[11]  D. Ruppert The Elements of Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction , 2004 .

[12]  G. F. Gates,et al.  Consensus report on quality control of quantitative measurements of renal function obtained from the renogram: International Consensus Committee from the Scientific Committee of Radionuclides in Nephrourology. , 1999, Seminars in nuclear medicine.

[13]  Frank Y. Shih,et al.  Image Processing and Mathematical Morphology: Fundamentals and Applications , 2017 .

[14]  R S Lawson,et al.  Application of mathematical methods in dynamic nuclear medicine studies. , 1999, Physics in medicine and biology.

[15]  C D Russell,et al.  Measurement of Renal Parenchymal Transit Time of 99mTc-MAG3 Using Factor Analysis , 1990, Nuklearmedizin.

[16]  G. F. Gates,et al.  Glomerular filtration rate: estimation from fractional renal accumulation of 99mTc-DTPA (stannous). , 1982, AJR. American journal of roentgenology.

[17]  Mattias Ohlsson,et al.  An Automated System for the Detection and Diagnosis of Kidney Lesions in Children from Scintigraphy Images , 2011, SCIA.

[18]  M D Rutland,et al.  A comprehensive analysis of renal DTPA studies. I. Theory and normal values , 1985, Nuclear medicine communications.

[19]  M. E. Valentinuzzi,et al.  Discrete deconvolution , 2006, Medical and biological engineering.

[20]  O Ferrini,et al.  [Clinical applications of renal scintigraphy]. , 1965, Minerva nucleare.

[21]  Y Takaki,et al.  Quantitative renography with the organ volume method and interporative background subtraction technique , 1996, Annals of nuclear medicine.

[22]  Gates Gf,et al.  Glomerular filtration rate: estimation from fractional renal accumulation of 99mTc-DTPA (stannous). , 1982, AJR. American journal of roentgenology.

[23]  T. Başar,et al.  A New Approach to Linear Filtering and Prediction Problems , 2001 .