Identification of ground glass structure in lung CT images by computer aided diagnosis technique

Lung diseases are the leading cause of death. Main factors that cause lung diseases are inhaling dusts, chemicals, or bacteria and molds at work. 70275 Indian people were affected by lung disease among them 63759 people died. CAD system assists the doctors for the diagnosis of diseases in higher degree of perfection within a short period of time. High-resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) is the preferred method for diagnosing a number of lung diseases. Ground glass structures are characterized by a slight increase in lung density, with persistent visibility of vascular structures and bronchial walls are imaged as abnormal lungs. Ground glass structure is a marker for pulmonary edema, desquamative pneumonitis, hypersensitive pneumonitis, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Image processing techniques play a significant role in the diagnosis of lung disease. This paper presents a novel image processing method to identify the ground glass structure in lung CT images using mean intensity pattern identification. The results obtained show the feasibility of the proposed method to diagnose the ground glass structure of lung CT image.