Fish Bone Impaction Using Adaptive Histogram Equalization (AHE)

This paper presents the enhancement capability of adaptive histogram equalization (AHE) on the soft tissue lateral neck radiograph for suspected fish bone ingestion. Embedded fish bone lodge in the throat is not easily visible in unprocessed plain radiograph. Serious complication may cause perforation of the lodged and inflammation that can progress to abscess. Forty X-ray images of 23 male and 17 female patients between the ages of 6 to 72 years from different ethnic groups were collected from Hospital Sungai Buloh and Pusat Perubatan Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM). Due to the high resolution, the images were crop before being processed using adaptive histogram equalization. The quality of the image was assessed and evaluated during pre and post processing by the radiologists. The result shows AHE as a promising contrast enhancement for detection of fish bone in soft tissue at the lateral neck radiographs.