Edge Detection and Diameter Measurement of Appendiceal Ultrasound Images for the Assessment of Acute Appendicitis

摘要

Acute appendicitis is one of the most common surgical emergencies worldwide. Accurate confirmation of appendicitis either clinically or by ultrasonography (US) evaluation is essential for early treatment. In current clinical practice, the measurement of the outer appendiceal diameter by sonographers has been used to confirm acute appendicitis. Thus, certain image processing can be used to enhance the image quality to help sonographers in performing a better diagnosis. This paper proposed a series of image processing method including image thresholding, enhancement and edge detection before measuring the appendiceal. Ten trials of measurement by sonographers using ultrasound and measurement after image processing were gathered. Statistical analyses of both measurements were computed. Mean and standard deviation for the sonographers measurements and measurements after image processing are 4.937±0.1425989mm and 4.613710±0.0839246mm respectively. Sonographers measurement showed higher variability compared to measurement after image processing thus measuring the appendiceal diameter after image processing is more reliable.