Estimation of fractal dimension according to optical density of cell nuclei in Papanicolaou smears

Abstract

The computer assisted Papanicolaou smears analysis is considered in this paper. The fractal based technique using the Triangular Prism Method and field area of cell nuclei is proposed. Digital images of Papanicolaou smears are color and the selection of the proper color subspace is investigated. The best results are obtained for the green channel. The fractal dimension is not sufficient for the classification of the cell nucleus (correct/feature of atypia). The proposed technique is based on the analysis fractal dimension for two scale ranges. Good separation between cell nuclei is obtained without consideration of the cytoplasmic index. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.