title: Segmentation and feature extraction techniques, with applications to MRI head studies.
abstract: To obtain a three-dimensional reconstruction of the hippocampus from a volumetric MRI head study, it is necessary to separate that structure not only from the surrounding white matter, but also from contiguous areas of gray matter--the amygdala and cerebral cortex. At present it is necessary for a physician to manually segment the hippocampus on each slice of the volume to obtain such a reconstruction. This process is time consuming, and is subject to inter- and intraoperator variation as well as large discontinuities between slices. We propose a novel technique, making use of a combination of gray scale and edge-detection algorithms and some a priori knowledge, by which a computer may make an unsupervised identification of a given structure through a series of contiguous images. This technique is applicable even if the structure includes so-called false contours or missing contours. Applications include three-dimensional reconstruction of difficult-to-segment regions of the brain, and volumetric measurements of structures from series of two-dimensional images.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ashton
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weisberg
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ketonen
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006257:Head / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results