240 Bulletin UASMV, Veterinary Medicine, 69(1-2)/2012 Print ISSN 1843-5270; Electronic ISSN 1843-5378 Using Fractal Analysis to Assess the Ultrasonographic Images Andrei ȘTEFAN, Mircea MIRCEAN University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Mănăştur Street, No. 3-5, 400372, Cluj-Napoca, Romania stefan.andrei.vet@gmail.com Abstract: Ultrasonography is used in Veterinary Medicine to evaluate the structure of internal organs. Interpretation of ultrasound images is dependent on the evaluators experience, the machine settings or the frequency at which the scan is made. In order to assess more objectively the interpretation of digital ultrasound images, we propose the use of Fractal Analysis (FA) as a complementary method. Keywords: fractal dimension, fractal analysis, ultrasonography, liver structure. Introduction Ultrasonography is used in Veterinary Medicine to evaluate the structure of internal organs. Interpretation of ultrasound images is dependent on the evaluators experience, the machine settings or the frequency at which the scan is made. Recent research papers show that the FA might by an efficient tool in characterizing digital medical images regarding their texture (Chen D.-R., 2005). The result of FA is represented by the Fractal Dimension (FD) which is a numerical value between 1 and 2 (Irini S. Reljin and Reljin B. D., 2002). Aims and objectives. To provide an objective evaluation of ultrasound images, we proposed the FA of digital ultrasound images, along with standard assessment protocol. Materials and methods. Digital ultrasound images were obtained from one healthy dog and from three dogs diagnosed with different liver pathologies (metastases from the breast, hemangiosarcoma and lymphoma) (Tab 1) in the Clinic of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, U.S.A.M.V. Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Tab 1 Number of digital ultrasound images taken for each case Normal liver Liver metastasis Hemangiosarcoma Lymphoma No. of digital ultrasound images taken 6 4 16 6 No. of ROIs 16 16 16 16 In order to achieve Fractal Analysis an equal number of square shaped regions of interest (ROIs) were cropped using specialized software PhotoScape © (MOOII TECH © ). The ROIs were then loaded in the ImageJ™ (Wayne Rasband (HIH), U.S.A.) software and processed by the box-counting method. The resulted data were recorded and statistically analyzed using the M.S. Excel™ (Microsoft™, U.S.A.) and GraphPad InStat™ v3.05 (GraphPad™, U.S.A.) software, by comparing the pathological data against the normal data. brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk