title: Semi-automated software for the three-dimensional delineation of complex vascular networks.
abstract: The understanding of tumour angiogenesis is of great importance in cancer research, as is the tumour response to vascular-targeted drugs. This paper presents software aimed at aiding these investigations and other situations where linear or dendritic structures are to be delineated from three-dimensional (3D) data sets. This software application was written to analyse the data from 3D data sets by allowing the manual and semi-automated tracking and delineation of the vascular tree, including the measurement of vessel diameter. A new algorithm, CHARM, based on a compact Hough transform and the formation of a radial map, has been used to locate vessel centres and measure diameters automatically. The robustness of this algorithm to image smoothing and noise has been investigated.
authors.affiliation: Gray Cancer Institute, Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex HA6 2JR, U.K. barber@gci.ac.uk
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Barber
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vojnovic
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ameer-Beg
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hodgkiss
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Tozer
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010780:Photogrammetry / Q000379:methods; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D012984:Software; D014741:Video Recording / Q000379:methods