Automatic delimitation of lung fields on chest radiographs

The purpose of the research herein presented is the automatic delimitation of lung fields in posterior-anterior digital chest radiographs. In a computer-aided diagnosis system the precise location of the lungs is important as it allows the reduction of the region under analysis, decreasing the computation time and facilitating data compression. Furthermore, it allows the delimitation of the search area, easing the selective tuning of the abnormalities detection algorithms. The results produced by the automatic method were validated by comparison with manual contours traced by experienced radiologists. Two programs with friendly interfaces were developed for this purpose.