Segmentation of sperm's Acrosome, nucleus and mid-piece in microscopic images of stained human semen smear

The measurement or evaluation and clinical significance of human sperm morphology has always been and still is a controversial aspect of the semen analysis for the determination of a male's fertility potential. The evaluation of sperm size, shape and morphological smear characteristics should be assesed by carefully observing a stained sperm sample under a microscope. In order to avoid subjectivity, numerous studies that incorporate image analysis techniques in the assessment of sperm morphology have been proposed. The primary step of all these methods is segmentation of sperm's parts. In this paper, we have proposed a new method for segmentation of sperm's Acrosome, Nucleus and Mid-piece. Sperm's Acrosome, Nucleus and Midpiece are segmented through a method based on a Bayesian classifier which utilizes the adaptive mixtures method (AMM) and Markov random field (MRF) model to obtain and upgrade the class conditional probability density function (CCPDF) and the apriori probability of each class. To compare the performance of the proposed approach with those of previous approaches including manual segmentation, the Accuracy, Sensitivity and Specificity were calculated.

[1]  Ahmad Bijar,et al.  Sperm's tail identification and discrimination in microscopic images of stained human semen smear , 2011, 2011 7th International Symposium on Image and Signal Processing and Analysis (ISPA).

[2]  Ron Kikinis,et al.  Markov random field segmentation of brain MR images , 1997, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[3]  J. Rodríguez-Gil,et al.  Regression analyses and motile sperm subpopulation structure study as improving tools in boar semen quality analysis. , 2004, Theriogenology.

[4]  Farzad Towhidkhah,et al.  Fully automatic segmentation of multiple sclerosis lesions in brain MR FLAIR images using adaptive mixtures method and markov random field model , 2008, Comput. Biol. Medicine.

[5]  Mohammad Hasan Moradi,et al.  Sperm Identification Using Elliptic Model and Tail Detection , 2005 .

[6]  R Vishwanath,et al.  Replicate and technician variation associated with computer aided bull sperm head morphometry analysis (ASMA). , 1999, International journal of andrology.

[7]  A. M. Andrew,et al.  Another Efficient Algorithm for Convex Hulls in Two Dimensions , 1979, Inf. Process. Lett..

[8]  Donald Geman,et al.  Boundary Detection by Constrained Optimization , 1990, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[9]  K. Kannan,et al.  An Improved Hybrid Model for Molecular Image Denoising , 2008, Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision.

[10]  H. Baker,et al.  A new fully automated system for the morphometric analysis of human sperm heads. , 1995, Fertility and sterility.

[11]  Lars Kai Hansen,et al.  Towards semen quality assessment using neural networks , 1994, Proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Neural Networks for Signal Processing.

[12]  E. L. Lewis,et al.  Morphometric analysis of spermatozoa in the assessment of human male fertility. , 1986, Journal of andrology.

[13]  Mohammad Hassan Moradi,et al.  A Multi Steps Algorithm for Sperm Segmentation in Microscopic Image , 2007, IEC.

[14]  A. Hoeflich,et al.  Objectively measured sperm motility and sperm head morphometry in boars (Sus scrofa): relation to fertility and seminal plasma growth factors. , 2001, Journal of andrology.

[15]  M. Sotaquira,et al.  Spermatozoon Segmentation Towards an Objective Analysis of Human Sperm Morphology , 2007, 2007 5th International Symposium on Image and Signal Processing and Analysis.

[16]  B. de Wolf,et al.  Variation in semen parameters derived from computer-aided semen analysis, within donors and between donors. , 2001, Journal of andrology.

[17]  N. Petkov,et al.  Statistical approach to boar semen evaluation using intracellular intensity distribution of head images. , 2007, Cellular and molecular biology.

[18]  G. Ostermeier,et al.  Measurement of bovine sperm nuclear shape using Fourier harmonic amplitudes. , 2001, Journal of andrology.

[19]  G. Toussaint Solving geometric problems with the rotating calipers , 1983 .

[20]  Roelof Menkveld,et al.  Measurement and significance of sperm morphology. , 2011, Asian journal of andrology.

[21]  Jeremy Michael Nett,et al.  THE STUDY OF MS USING MRI, IMAGE PROCESSING, AND VISUALIZATION , 2001 .

[22]  Matheus Palhares Viana,et al.  A comparison of morphometric characteristics of sperm from fertile Bos taurus and Bos indicus bulls in Brazil. , 2005, Animal reproduction science.

[23]  Angel R. Martinez,et al.  Computational Statistics Handbook with MATLAB , 2001 .

[24]  Ricardo Gutierrez,et al.  A Computer Aided Tool for the Assessment of Human Sperm Morphology , 2007, 2007 IEEE 7th International Symposium on BioInformatics and BioEngineering.

[25]  Dominiek Maes,et al.  Automated sperm morphometry and morphology analysis of canine semen by the Hamilton-Thorne analyser. , 2004, Theriogenology.

[26]  M. Iguer-ouada,et al.  Computer assisted semen analyzers in andrology research and veterinary practice. , 2002, Theriogenology.

[27]  Nicolai Petkov,et al.  Statistical Approach to Boar Semen Head Classification Based on Intracellular Intensity Distribution , 2005, CAIP.

[28]  A. Dale Magoun,et al.  Decision, estimation and classification , 1989 .

[29]  Stan Z. Li,et al.  Markov Random Field Modeling in Image Analysis , 2001, Computer Science Workbench.