Improved 3D live-wire method with application to 3D CT chest image analysis

Kongkuo Lu; William E. Higgins

doi:10.1117/12.651723

10 March 2006 Improved 3D live-wire method with application to 3D CT chest image analysis

Kongkuo Lu, William E. Higgins

Proceedings Volume 6144, Medical Imaging 2006: Image Processing; 61440L (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.651723
Event: Medical Imaging, 2006, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The definition of regions of interests (ROIs), such as suspect cancer nodules or lymph nodes in 3D CT chest images, is often difficult because of the complexity of the phenomena that give rise to them. Manual slice tracing has been used widely for years for such problems, because it is easy to implement and guaranteed to work. But the manual method is extremely time-consuming, especially for high-solution 3D images which may have hundreds of slices, and it is subject to operator biases. Numerous automated image-segmentation methods have been proposed, but they are generally strongly application dependent, and even the "most robust" methods have difficulty in defining complex anatomical ROIs. To address this problem, the semi-automatic interactive paradigm referred to as "live wire" segmentation has been proposed by researchers. In live-wire segmentation, the human operator interactively defines an ROI's boundary guided by an active automated method which suggests what to define. This process in general is far faster, more reproducible and accurate than manual tracing, while, at the same time, permitting the definition of complex ROIs having ill-defined boundaries. We propose a 2D live-wire method employing an improved cost over previous works. In addition, we define a new 3D live-wire formulation that enables rapid definition of 3D ROIs. The method only requires the human operator to consider a few slices in general. Experimental results indicate that the new 2D and 3D live-wire approaches are efficient, allow for high reproducibility, and are reliable for 2D and 3D object segmentation.

Citation Download Citation

Kongkuo Lu and William E. Higgins "Improved 3D live-wire method with application to 3D CT chest image analysis", Proc. SPIE 6144, Medical Imaging 2006: Image Processing, 61440L (10 March 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.651723

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