Automatic Measurement of Thyroid Gland

This study presents a novel method for automatic measurement of the anteroposterior diameter of the thyroid gland, in ultrasound images. Anteroposterior diameter is widely considered a basic parameter for goiter assessment. Goiter refers to abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland and it is associated with iodine deficiency and various pathologic conditions including Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and growing nodules. The proposed method is based on processing local histogram information extracted from vertically sampled horizontal image stripes. The anteroposterior diameter can be derived by measuring the distance between the hyperechoic lines that bound the thyroid lobes as depicted in longitudinal ultrasound images. Extensive experiments were carried out on a set of B-mode thyroid ultrasound images, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results advocate to the feasibility of its use for objective measurement of the anteroposterior diameter of the thyroid gland.