Automatic whole heart segmentation in static magnetic resonance image volumes

Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2007;10(Pt 2):402-10. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-75759-7_49.

Abstract

We present a fully automatic segmentation algorithm for the whole heart (four chambers, left ventricular myocardium and trunks of the aorta, the pulmonary artery and the pulmonary veins) in cardiac MR image volumes with nearly isotropic voxel resolution, based on shape-constrained deformable models. After automatic model initialization and reorientation to the cardiac axes, we apply a multi-stage adaptation scheme with progressively increasing degrees of freedom. Particular attention is paid to the calibration of the MR image intensities. Detailed evaluation results for the various anatomical heart regions are presented on a database of 42 patients. On calibrated images, we obtain an average segmentation error of 0.76mm.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Heart / anatomy & histology*
  • Humans
  • Image Enhancement / methods*
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity