Table 1. Definitions of features.
Variable | Definition | Mathematical Formulaea |
---|---|---|
Minkowski functionals | ||
Area | Summed designated (white) pixels. | Ai = pi |
Perimeter | Summed pixel edges at the boundary between black and white pixels. | Ui = -4pi + 2ei |
Perimeter 1b | Perimeter at grey-scale threshold 1 (i.e. all pixels are white). The edge length (or contour) of the segmented region of interest. |
U0 = -4p0 + 2e0 |
Genus | Number of regions of connectedc white pixels minus the number of completely enclosed regions of black pixels. | χi = pi − ei + vi |
Size | ||
Total Area | Summed area at grey-scale threshold 1 (i.e. all pixels are white) for all slices of the tumour. | |
Total Perimeter | Summed perimeter at grey-scale threshold 1 for all slices of the tumour. The summed edge length (or contour) of the segmented regions of interest from all slices of the tumour. |
|
Signal intensity | ||
Mean | The mean raw signal intensity of all pixels from the segmented regions of interest from all slices of the tumour. | |
Standard Deviation | The standard deviation of the raw signal intensity of all pixels from the segmented regions of interest from all slices of the tumour. | |
Maximum | The maximum raw signal intensity of all pixels from the segmented regions of interest from all slices of the tumour. | |
Minimum | The minimum raw signal intensity of all pixels from the segmented regions of interest from all slices of the tumour. |
a Where pi, ei, and vi are the numbers of pixels, edges, and vertices at grey-scale threshold i, respectively; j is the number of image slices through the tumour; k is the individual tumour; SIp is the raw signal intensity for pixel p.
b A segmented region of interest was displayed as a binary combination of black and white pixels at 11 different grey-scale thresholds (Fig 1). Perimeter 1 in Table 1 is the perimeter at grey-scale threshold 1, from a total of 11. Eleven different grey-scale thresholds were also used for genus. Ten different grey-scale thresholds were used for area because the 1st value ≡ 1 when normalized and so was excluded.
c Two pixels are connected if they are nearest neighbors or next-nearest neighbors to each other.