Automated search for arthritic patterns in infrared spectra of synovial fluid using adaptive wavelets and fuzzy C-means analysis.

Analysis of synovial fluid by infrared (IR) clinical chemistry requires expert interpretation and is susceptible to subjective error. The application of automated pattern recognition (APR) may enhance the utility of IR analysis. Here, we describe an APR method based on the fuzzy C-means cluster adaptive wavelet (FCMC-AW) algorithm, which consists of two parts: one is a FCMC using the features from an M-band feature extractor adopting the adaptive wavelet algorithm and the second is a Bayesian classifier using the membership matrix generated by the FCMC. A FCMC-cross-validated quadratic probability measure (FCMC-CVQPM) criterion is used under the assumption that the class probability density is equal to the value of the membership matrix. Therefore, both values of posterior probabilities and selection criterion MFQ can be obtained through the membership matrix. The distinctive advantage of this method is that it provides not only the 'hard' classification of a new pattern, but also the confidence of this classification, which is reflected by the membership matrix.