Colon segmentation and colonic polyp detection using cellular neural networks and three-dimensional template matching

: In this study, an automatic three‐dimensional computer‐aided detection system for colonic polyps was developed. Computer‐aided detection for computed tomography colonography aims at facilitating the detection of colonic polyps. First, the colon regions of whole computed tomography images were carefully segmented to reduce computational burden and prevent false positive detection. In this process, the colon regions were extracted by using a cellular neural network and then the regions of interest were determined. In order to improve the segmentation performance of the study, weights in the cellular neural network were calculated by three heuristic optimization techniques, namely genetic algorithm, differential evaluation and artificial immune system. Afterwards, a three‐dimensional polyp template model was constructed to detect polyps on the segmented regions of interest. At the end of the template matching process, the volumes geometrically similar to the template were emhanced.