Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Computer Aided Diagnosis: State-of-the-Art
and Application to Musculoskeletal Diseases
Patrizia Parascandolo, Lorenzo Cesario, Loris Vosilla and Gianni Viano
12.1 Introduction
With the rapid advances in computing and electronic imaging technology, there has
been an increasing interest in developing
Computer Aided Diagnosis
(CAD) systems
to improve the medical service. CAD is emerging as an advanced interdisciplinary
technology which combines fundamental elements of different areas such as digital
image processing, image analysis, pattern recognition, medical information process-
ing and management. This technology can be applied to all imaging modalities,
including projection radiography, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI), ultrasound (US) and nuclear medicine imaging (PET, SPECT), used
for all body parts such as the skull, thorax, heart, abdomen and extremities, and for
all kinds of examinations including skeletal imaging, soft tissue imaging, functional
imaging and angiography.
Although current CAD systems cannot fully replace human doctors for medical
detection/diagnosis in clinical practice, the analytical results will assist doctors in
providing functionalities for diagnosis, treatment, adequate follow-up, and timely
monitoring of disease indicators [
1
-
9
]. Therefore, for the development of a suc-
cessful CAD, it is necessary not only to develop computer algorithms, but also to
investigate how useful the computer output would be for physicians in their diagno-
sis, how to quantify the benefits of the computer output for physicians, and how to
