Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Due to the non-uniform and complexity of bone age X-rays images, the results of contour extraction in automatic skeletal bone age assessment are often unsatisfactory.
OBJECTIVE: To extract palm contour automatically using computer to lay a foundation for image pretreatment of bone age assessment to eliminate subjectivity and uncertainty in bone age assessment.
METHODS: Bone age X-ray film was analyzed, and a feasible and effective program on the background image sub-sampling was proposed. Two-dimensional third order linear regression method was proposed to simulate the background images. Using a series of operations including morphological and binary image labeling, the contour of the hand was successful extracted.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: By combining outliers removal with regression, a fixed threshold was used, which avoids selection of appropriate threshold. Moreover, it is robust. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the success rate of hand contour extraction was over 93%, so this method can be fully used in automatic identification of bone age research.