Novel Pulmonary Nodule Position Detection Method Based on Multiscale Convolution

Objective In order to improve the accuracy of the current pulmonary nodule location detection method based on CT images, reduce the problem of missed detection or false detection, and effectively assist imaging doctors in the diagnosis of pulmonary nodules. Methods Propose a novel method for detecting the location of pulmonary nodules based on multiscale convolution. First, image preprocessing methods are used to eliminate the noise and artifacts in lung CT images. Second, multiple adjacent single-frame CT images are selected to be concatenate into multi-frame images, and the feature extraction is carried out through the artificial neural network model U-Net improved by multi-scale convolution to enhanced feature extraction capability for pulmonary nodules of different sizes and shapes, so as to improve the accuracy of feature extraction of pulmonary nodules. Finally, using point detection to improve the loss function of U-Net training process, the accuracy of pulmonary nodule location detection is improved. Results The accuracy of detecting pulmonary nodules equal or larger than 3 mm and smaller than 3 mm are 98.02% and 96.94% respectively. Conclusion This method can effectively improve the detection accuracy of pulmonary nodules on CT image sequence, and can better meet the diagnostic needs of pulmonary nodules.