A Fuzzy-C-Means-Clustering Approach: Quantifying Chromatin Pattern of Non-Neoplastic Cervical Squamous Cells

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 11; p. e0142830
• Main Authors: Tang, Jing Rui, Mat Isa, Nor Ashidi, Ch'ng, Ewe Seng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 11.11.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Cancer research; Cell Nucleus - metabolism; Cervical cancer; Cervix; Cervix Uteri - metabolism; Chromatin; Chromatin - chemistry; Cluster Analysis; Clustering; Computational Biology - methods; Computer Simulation; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; Epithelial Cells - metabolism; Female; Forecasts and trends; Fuzzy Logic; Humans; Image processing; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Image segmentation; Malignancy; Medical diagnosis; Models, Statistical; Morphology; Mortality; Nuclei; Nuclei (cytology); Pap test; Papanicolaou Test - methods; Patient outcomes; Pattern recognition; Precision medicine; Segmentation; Sensitivity analysis; Software; Squamous cells; Statistical analysis; Studies; Uterine Cervical Dysplasia - diagnosis; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - diagnosis; Vaginal Smears - methods; Malaysia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142830

Despite the effectiveness of Pap-smear test in reducing the mortality rate due to cervical cancer, the criteria of the reporting standard of the Pap-smear test are mostly qualitative in nature. This study addresses the issue on how to define the criteria in a more quantitative and definite term. A negative Pap-smear test result, i.e. negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM), is qualitatively defined to have evenly distributed, finely granular chromatin in the nuclei of cervical squamous cells. To quantify this chromatin pattern, this study employed Fuzzy C-Means clustering as the segmentation technique, enabling different degrees of chromatin segmentation to be performed on sample images of non-neoplastic squamous cells. From the simulation results, a model representing the chromatin distribution of non-neoplastic cervical squamous cell is constructed with the following quantitative characteristics: at the best representative sensitivity level 4 based on statistical analysis and human experts' feedbacks, a nucleus of non-neoplastic squamous cell has an average of 67 chromatins with a total area of 10.827 μm2; the average distance between the nearest chromatin pair is 0.508 μm and the average eccentricity of the chromatin is 0.47.