Abstract
Pleural mesothelioma is a pathological condition in which carcinoma cells are observed in the pleura. A tumor infiltrates a chest wall and the surface of the lungs and metastasizes. This is a factor in causing pleural effusion caused by penetration of the pleura and the dyspnea that accompanies pleural effusion. It permeates pericardium than mediastinal pleura and forms a tumors on the pericardium, heart failure caused by dystelectasis results, indicating the need for early treatment. It is difficult to discover mesothelioma through diagnosis using conventional plain X-ray images. This is partly because mesothelioma itself exhibits few initial symptoms. In this study, a method was developed for measuring individually the volumes of pleural mesothelioma regions extracted from chest CT images. Such quantification makes it possible to assess numerically the progress of symptoms and course of treatment. Verification using patient data suggests the feasibility of assisted diagnosis that uses the identification and quantitative measurement of mesothelioma regions provided by this method.
