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Journals / Erciyes Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü Fen Bilimleri Dergisi / 2026 / Cilt: 42 Sayı: 3

Classification of HEp-2 Cell Patterns in Autoimmune Disease Diagnosis Using Hybrid DenseNet-ViT Architecture

Otoimmün Hastalık Tanısında Hep-2 Hücre Desenlerinin Hibrit DenseNet-ViT Mimarisi ile Sınıflandırılması

Faruk Özgür(FIRAT ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0009-0002-8478-0616
Erdal Özbay(Fırat Üniversitesi)0000-0002-9004-4802
Taner Tuncer(FIRAT ÜNİVERSİTESİ)0000-0003-0526-4526
Pages
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Publication Date
2026-09-28
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

Results: The proposed hybrid model achieved an overall accuracy of 96.01% under these rigorous test conditions, without the use of synthetic data augmentation.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

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Objective & Hypothesis:Background/Aim: Accurate and consistent interpretation of HEp-2 cell patterns, considered the gold standard in autoimmune disease diagnosis, remains challenging due to inter-expert variability.
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Key Findings & Data:This study aims to develop a hybrid deep learning architecture for the automated and highly accurate classification of HEp-2 cell images.
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Conclusion & Impact:Results: The proposed hybrid model achieved an overall accuracy of 96.01% under these rigorous test conditions, without the use of synthetic data augmentation.
🔬Design:Modeling & Simulation
📍Scope:2012 Verileri
⚙️Variables:HEp-2 Hücre Sınıflandırması · Vision Transformer · Hibrit Derin Öğrenme

Abstract

Background/Aim: Accurate and consistent interpretation of HEp-2 cell patterns, considered the gold standard in autoimmune disease diagnosis, remains challenging due to inter-expert variability. This study aims to develop a hybrid deep learning architecture for the automated and highly accurate classification of HEp-2 cell images. Methods: The proposed approach integrates DenseNet-121, which excels at capturing local morphological features, with Vision Transformer (ViT-B16), known for modeling global contextual relationships. These models are combined using a weighted ensemble strategy. The performance of the model was evaluated on the MIVIA (ICPR 2012) dataset under a strict source-image split protocol, which explicitly prevents the object-level data leakage frequently overlooked in the literature. Results: The proposed hybrid model achieved an overall accuracy of 96.01% under these rigorous test conditions, without the use of synthetic data augmentation. A key methodological contribution is its ability to effectively distinguish between Homogeneous and Fine Speckled patterns, which are frequently misclassified by experts. Notably, the model achieved 100% precision for the Fine Speckled class. Additionally, it was empirically demonstrated that a small batch size (Batch Size = 8) improves generalization performance in fine-textured biomedical images. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the robust feature extraction capabilities of the proposed hybrid architecture, establishing a reliable, realistic, and methodologically transparent baseline for future computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems.

Özet

Otoimmün hastalıkların tanısında altın standart olarak kabul edilen HEp-2 hücre desenlerinin doğru ve tutarlı şekilde yorumlanması, uzmanlar arasında değişkenlik gösterebilmektedir. Bu çalışma, HEp-2 hücre görüntülerinin otomatik ve yüksek doğrulukla sınıflandırılması amacıyla hibrit bir derin öğrenme mimarisi geliştirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Önerilen yaklaşımda, lokal morfolojik özelliklerin çıkarımında güçlü performans sergileyen DenseNet-121 mimarisi ile global dokusal bağıntıları modellemede üstün Vision Transformer (ViT-B16) yapısı birleştirilmiştir. Bu iki model, ağırlıklı bir topluluk (ensemble) stratejisi ile entegre edilmiştir. Modelin performansı, literatürde sıkça göz ardı edilen nesne düzeyindeki veri sızıntısını (data leakage) kesin olarak engelleyen katı bir kaynak-görüntü (source-image split) ayırma protokolü ile MIVIA (ICPR 2012) veri seti üzerinde değerlendirilmiştir. Önerilen hibrit model, herhangi bir sentetik veri artırımı kullanılmadan bu zorlu test koşulları altında %96.01 genel doğruluk elde etmiştir. Modelin en dikkat çekici başarısı, uzmanlar tarafından sıklıkla karıştırılan Homogeneous ve Fine Speckled desenleri arasında yüksek doğrulukla ayrım yapabilmesidir. Özellikle Fine Speckled sınıfında %100 kesinlik (precision) değeri elde edilmiştir. Ayrıca, küçük batch boyutunun (Batch Size=8) ince dokulu biyomedikal görüntülerde model genellemesini artırdığı deneysel olarak gösterilmiştir. Elde edilen bulgular, önerilen hibrit mimarinin sağlam özellik çıkarma kapasitesini kanıtlamakta ve gelecekteki bilgisayar destekli tanı (CAD) sistemleri için güvenilir, gerçekçi ve metodolojik açıdan şeffaf bir temel oluşturduğunu göstermektedir.

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Cite This Article

Özgür, F., Özbay, E., Tuncer, T. (2026). Classification of HEp-2 Cell Patterns in Autoimmune Disease Diagnosis Using Hybrid DenseNet-ViT Architecture. Erciyes Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü Fen Bilimleri Dergisi, Cilt: 42 Sayı: 3. https://doi.org/10.65520/erciyesfen.1925750

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