title: A novel 3D joint Markov-Gibbs model for extracting blood vessels from PC-MRA images.
abstract: New techniques for more accurate segmentation of a 3D cerebrovascular system from phase contrast (PC) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) data are proposed. In this paper, we describe PC-MRA images and desired maps of regions by a joint Markov-Gibbs random field model (MGRF) of independent image signals and interdependent region labels but focus on most accurate model identification. To better specify region borders, each empirical distribution of signals is precisely approximated by a Linear Combination of Discrete Gaussians (LCDG) with positive and negative components. We modified the conventional Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm to deal with the LCDG. The initial segmentation based on the LCDG-models is then iteratively refined using a MGRF model with analytically estimated potentials. Experiments with both the phantoms and real data sets confirm high accuracy of the proposed approach.
authors.affiliation: Bioimaging Laboratory, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA.
authors.forename: Ayman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El-Baz
authors.forename: Georgy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gimel'farb
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Falk
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abou El-Ghar
authors.forename: Vedant
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Heredia
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008390:Markov Chains; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity