function [ image ] = removeDisjointStructures( image )

%removeDisjointStructures 

%Otsu thresholding may not always provide a single structure that would 

%represent a nodule, this function will attempt to remove additional 

%structures.

%

%    param Image

%         Must be an image that has had otsu segmentation done on it.

%    return fixedImage

%         an image with a single class to be used for segmentation

    %find all connected components

    CC = bwconncomp(image);

    %Count the number of pixels belonging to each component

    numPixels = cellfun(@numel,CC.PixelIdxList);

    %find the maximum area connected component, provides index and count

    [biggest,idx] = max(numPixels);

    %remove all other connected components that are not the largest

    %component

    for i=1:CC.NumObjects

        if(i == idx)

            continue;

        end

        %erase smaller components

        image(CC.PixelIdxList{i}) = 0;

    end

end