title: Active deformation fields: dense deformation field estimation for atlas-based segmentation using the active contour framework.
abstract: This paper presents a new and original variational framework for atlas-based segmentation. The proposed framework integrates both the active contour framework, and the dense deformation fields of optical flow framework. This framework is quite general and encompasses many of the state-of-the-art atlas-based segmentation methods. It also allows to perform the registration of atlas and target images based on only selected structures of interest. The versatility and potentiality of the proposed framework are demonstrated by presenting three diverse applications: In the first application, we show how the proposed framework can be used to simulate the growth of inconsistent structures like a tumor in an atlas. In the second application, we estimate the position of nonvisible brain structures based on the surrounding structures and validate the results by comparing with other methods. In the final application, we present the segmentation of lymph nodes in the Head and Neck CT images, and demonstrate how multiple registration forces can be used in this framework in an hierarchical manner.
authors.affiliation: Signal Processing Laboratory (LTS5), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. subrahmanyam.gorthi@epfl.ch
authors.forename: Subrahmanyam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gorthi
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Duay
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bresson
authors.forename: Meritxell Bach
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Cuadra
authors.forename: F Javier
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Sánchez Castro
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pollo
authors.forename: Abdelkarim S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Allal
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Thiran
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D019295:Computational Biology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*