title: Data-driven brain MRI segmentation supported on edge confidence and a priori tissue information.
abstract: Brain magnetic resonance imaging segmentation is accomplished in this work by applying nonparametric density estimation, using the mean shift algorithm in the joint spatial-range domain. The quality of the class boundaries is improved by including an edge confidence map, that represents the confidence of truly being in the presence of a border between adjacent regions; an adjacency graph is then constructed with the labeled regions, and analyzed and pruned to merge adjacent regions. In order to assign image regions to a cerebral tissue type, a spatial normalization between image data and standard probability maps is carried out, so that for each structure a maximum a posteriori probability criterion is applied. The method was applied to synthetic and real images, keeping all parameters constant throughout the process for each type of data. The combination of region segmentation and edge detection proved to be a robust technique, as adequate clusters were automatically identified, regardless of the noise level and bias. In a comparison with reference segmentations, average Tanimoto indexes of 0.90-0.99 were obtained for synthetic data and of 0.59-0.99 for real data, considering gray matter, white matter, and background.
authors.affiliation: Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, Av. San Rafael Atlixco 186, Col. Vicentina, México. jajr@xanum.uam.mx
authors.forename: Juan Ramón
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Alaniz
authors.forename: Verónica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Medina-Bañuelos
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yáñez-Suárez
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D016208:Databases, Factual; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique