title: Statistical shape modeling of pathological scoliotic vertebrae: A comparative analysis.
abstract: Statistical shape models (SSMs) have been used widely as a basis for segmenting and interpreting complex anatomical structures. The robustness of these models are sensitive to the registration procedures, i.e., establishment of a dense correspondence across a training data set. In this work, two SSMs based on the same training data set of scoliotic vertebrae, and registration procedures were compared. The first model was constructed based on the original binary masks without applying any image pre- and post-processing, and the second was obtained by means of a feature preserving smoothing method applied to the original training data set, followed by a standard rasterization algorithm. The accuracies of the correspondences were assessed quantitatively by means of the maximum of the mean minimum distance (MMMD) and Hausdorf distance (H(D)). Anatomical validity of the models were quantified by means of three different criteria, i.e., compactness, specificity, and model generalization ability. The objective of this study was to compare quasi-identical models based on standard metrics. Preliminary results suggest that the MMMD distance and eigenvalues are not sensitive metrics for evaluating the performance and robustness of SSMs.
authors.affiliation: Institut for Surgical Technology and Biomechanics, University of Bern, Stauffacherstr. 78, CH-3014, Switzerland. marcelo.eliasdeoliveira@istb.unibe.ch
authors.forename: Marcelo Elias
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reutlinger
authors.forename: Guoyan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Carol-Claudius
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Hasler
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Buchler
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000473:pathology*; D013131:Spine / Q000473:pathology*