Thyroid gland analysis based on joint processing of histological and ultrasonic images

Abstract

Simultaneous analysis of histological and ultrasonic (US) images of human thyroid glands has been done for thyroid cancer diagnostics. Sizes of follicles were calculated by analysis of distance map for nuclei of cells. Textures on US-images depend on characteristics of follicles. Statistical analysis of US-texture features allows to detect connections of histological and US-images. It was shown that echogenicity of thyroid gland on US imaged depends essentially on size of its follicles. Regions of the organ that contain many follicles of size smaller than size of healthy follicles or contain many destroyed follicles have a low echogenicity. Organ regions that contain many follicles of size considerably greater than size of healthy follicles have low echogenicity, too. This information can be used to avoid surgical procedure, including histological analysis