In this paper, we propose a new lung segmentation method for chest x-ray images which can take both global and local properties into account. Firstly, the initial lung segmentation is computed by applying the active shape model (ASM) which keeps the shape of deformable model from the pre-learned model and searches the image boundaries. At the second segmentation stage, we also applied the localizing region-based active contour model (LRACM) for correcting various regional errors in the initial

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... egmentation. Finally, to measure the similarities, we calculated the Dice coefficient of the segmented area using each semiautomatic method with the result of the manually segmented area by a radiologist. The comparison experiments were performed using 5 lung x-ray images. In our experiment, the Dice coefficient with manually segmented area was 95.33%±0.93% for the proposed method. Effective segmentation methods will be essential for the development of computer-aided diagnosis systems for a more accurate early diagnosis and prognosis regarding lung cancer in chest x-ray images.