Comparative evaluation of active contour model extensions for automated cardiac MR image segmentation by regional error assessment.
OBJECTIVE
In the field of cardiac MR image segmentation, active contour models, or snakes have been extensively used, owing to their promising results and to the numerous extensions proposed to improve their performance. This paper explores a methodology for evaluating cardiac MR image segmentation algorithms, which assesses the distance between computer-generated and the observer's hand-outlined boundaries. This metric was applied to various external force extensions of the traditional snake, since no systematic comparison has been performed.


METHODS
Cardiac MRI from six patients were analyzed. Imaging was performed on a 1.5 T MR scanner with ECG-gated balanced steady-state free precession (b-SSFP) sequences. Segmentation performances were established for traditional snake, gradient vector flow snake, standard- and guided- pressure force-based snake. The use of a pre-treatment with non-linear anisotropic filtering was also compared to non-filtered images.


RESULTS
Agreement between manual and segmentation algorithms was satisfactory for ejection fraction for every segmentation scheme. However end-systolic and end-diastolic volumes were systematically underestimated.


CONCLUSIONS
The developed regional error metric provided a more rigorous evaluation of the segmentation schemes in comparison to the classical derived parameters based on left ventricle volume estimation, usually used in functional cardiac MR studies. These derived parameters can furthermore mask local segmentation errors.
Nguyen
Duy
D
Radiology Department, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland. duy.nguyen@hcuge.ch
Masterson
Karen
K
Vallée
Jean-Paul
JP
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity