Detection of orbital floor fractures by principal component analysis

Abstract

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a statistical method based on orthogonal transformation, which is used to convert possibly correlated datasets into linearly uncorrelated variables called principal components. PCA is one of the simplest methods based on the eigenvector analysis. This method is widely used in many fields, such as signal processing, quality control or mechanical engineering. In this paper, we present the use of PCA in area of medical image processing. In the medical image processing with subsequent reconstruction of 3D models, data from sources such as Computed Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance Imagining (MRI) are used. Series of images representing axial slices of human body are stored in Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) format. Physical properties of different body tissues are characterized by different shades of grey of each pixel correlated to the tissue density. Properties of each pixel are then used in image segmentation and subsequent creation of 3D model of human organs. Image segmentation splits digital image into regions with similar properties which are later used to create 3D model. In many cases accurate detections of edges of such objects are necessary. This could be for example the case of a tumour or orbital fracture identification. In this paper, identification of the orbital fracture using PCA method is presented as an example of application of the method in the area of medical image processing.