Automatic computer aided diagnosis tool using component-based SVM

Alzheimer type dementia (ATD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder first affecting memory functions and then gradually affecting all cognitive functions with behavioral impairments and eventually causing death. Functional brain imaging including single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is commonly used to guide the clinician’s diagnosis. However, conventional evaluation of these scans often relies on manual reorientation, visual reading and semiquantitative analysis of certain regions of the brain. These steps are time consuming, subjective and prone to error. This paper shows a fully automatic computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for improving the accuracy in the early diagnosis of the Alzheimer’s disease. The proposed approach is based on a first automatic feature selection, and secondly a combination of component-based support vector machine (SVM) classification and a pasting votes technique of ensemble SVM classifiers.