title: Robust segmentation methods with an application to aortic pulse wave velocity calculation.
abstract: Aortic stiffness has proven to be an important diagnostic and prognostic factor of many cardiovascular diseases, as well as an estimate of overall cardiovascular health. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) represents a good measure of the aortic stiffness, while the aortic distensibility is used as an aortic elasticity index. Obtaining the PWV and the aortic distensibility from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data requires diverse segmentation tasks, namely the extraction of the aortic center line and the segmentation of aortic regions, combined with signal processing methods for the analysis of the pulse wave. In our study non-contrasted MRI images of abdomen were used in healthy volunteers (22 data sets) for the sake of non-invasive analysis and contrasted magnetic resonance (MR) images were used for the aortic examination of Marfan syndrome patients (8 data sets). In this research we present a novel robust segmentation technique for the PWV and aortic distensibility calculation as a complete image processing toolbox. We introduce a novel graph-based method for the centerline extraction of a thoraco-abdominal aorta for the length calculation from 3-D MRI data, robust to artifacts and noise. Moreover, we design a new projection-based segmentation method for transverse aortic region delineation in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images which is robust to high presence of artifacts. Finally, we propose a novel method for analysis of velocity curves in order to obtain pulse wave propagation times. In order to validate the proposed method we compare the obtained results with manually determined aortic centerlines and a region segmentation by an expert, while the results of the PWV measurement were compared to a validated software (LUMC, Leiden, the Netherlands). The obtained results show high correctness and effectiveness of our method for the aortic PWV and distensibility calculation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing - TELIN-IPI-iMinds, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: dbabin@telin.ugent.be.
authors.forename: Danilo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Babin
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Cardiovascular MR & CT, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: daniel.devos@uzgent.be.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Devos
authors.affiliation: Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing - TELIN-IPI-iMinds, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: sanja@telin.ugent.be.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pižurica
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, LUMC, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusedreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address: j.j.m.westenberg@lumc.nl.
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Westenberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing - TELIN-IPI-iMinds, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: ervsteen@telin.ugent.be.
authors.forename: Ewout
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vansteenkiste
authors.affiliation: Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing - TELIN-IPI-iMinds, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: philips@telin.ugent.be.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Philips
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001011:Aorta / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055119:Elastic Modulus; 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*; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine / Q000379:methods*; D008382:Marfan Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011673:Pulsatile Flow; D063177:Pulse Wave Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014655:Vascular Resistance
keywords: Image segmentation; Multiscale segmentation; Pulse wave velocity