title: Automatic segmentation of echocardiography based on a morphological reconstruction algorithm.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To improve the precision of the traditional segmentation of echocardiogram, by suppressing the influence from inherent speckle noises in medical ultrasonic images.
  
  
  METHODS
  An automatic segmentation method based on reconstructed morphology was proposed in this paper. First, the opening and closing operations by reconstruction were imposed to the ultrasonic image. Second, the top-hat operation was used to extract the bright and/or dark features and to find out the boundaries corresponding to these features, whereby implemented the automatic segmentation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The segmented echocardiogram had less artificial boundaries resulted from speckle noise, and could accurately be extracted the artery and ventricle.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presented method can detect both dark and bright objects accurately, and the boundary has a fine continuity. In addition, the algorithm is also applicable to the extraction of sole bright/dark features, accordingly to reduce the complexity and time needed and to improve the accuracy.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu Sichuan.
authors.forename: Xian-hua
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: De-yu
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jiang-li
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Tian-fu
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiao-hui
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Chang-qiong
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D016477:Artifacts; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D004285:Dogs; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D013552:Swine