title: Colon segmentation for prepless virtual colonoscopy.
abstract: A novel segmentation framework for a prepless virtual colonoscopy (VC) is presented, which reduces the necessity for colon cleansing before the CT scan. The patient is injected rectally with a water-soluble iodinated contrast medium using manual insufflators and a small rectal catheter. Compared to the air-based contrast medium, this technique can better preserve the color lumen and reduce the partial volume effect. However, the contrast medium, together with the fecal materials and air, makes colon wall segmentation challenging. Our solution makes no assumptions about the shape, size, and location of the fecal material in the colon. This generality allows us to label the fecal material accurately and extract the colon wall reliably. The accuracy of our technique has been verified on 60 human subjects. Compared with current VC technologies, our method is shown to be better in terms of both sensitivity and specificity. Further, in our experiments, the accuracy of the technique was comparable to that of optical colonoscopy results.
authors: Department of Computer Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA. vahidtaimouri@wayne.edu
authors: Vahid
authors: V
authors: Taimouri
authors: Xin
authors: X
authors: Liu
authors: Zhaoqiang
authors: Z
authors: Lai
authors: Chang
authors: C
authors: Liu
authors: Darshan
authors: D
authors: Pai
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Hua