title: Methodology for fully automated segmentation and plaque characterization in intracoronary optical coherence tomography images.
abstract: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a light-based intracoronary imaging modality that provides high-resolution cross-sectional images of the luminal and plaque morphology. Currently, the segmentation of OCT images and identification of the composition of plaque are mainly performed manually by expert observers. However, this process is laborious and time consuming and its accuracy relies on the expertise of the observer. To address these limitations, we present a methodology that is able to process the OCT data in a fully automated fashion. The proposed methodology is able to detect the lumen borders in the OCT frames, identify the plaque region, and detect four tissue types: calcium (CA), lipid tissue (LT), fibrous tissue (FT), and mixed tissue (MT). The efficiency of the developed methodology was evaluated using annotations from 27 OCT pullbacks acquired from 22 patients. High Pearson's correlation coefficients were obtained between the output of the developed methodology and the manual annotations (from 0.96 to 0.99), while no significant bias with good limits of agreement was shown in the Bland-Altman analysis. The overlapping areas ratio between experts' annotations and methodology in detecting CA, LT, FT, and MT was 0.81, 0.71, 0.87, and 0.81, respectively.
authors: University of Ioannina, Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, GR 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Lambros S
authors: LS
authors: Athanasiou
authors: ThoraxCenter, Erasmus Medical Center, 's-Gravendijkwal 230, 3015 CE Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Christos V
authors: CV
authors: Bourantas
authors: University of Ioannina, Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, GR 45110 Ioannina, GreececFORTH-Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Biomedical Research, G.
authors: George
authors: G
authors: Rigas
authors: University of Ioannina, Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, GR 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Antonis I
authors: AI
authors: Sakellarios
authors: University of Ioannina, Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, GR 45110 Ioannina, GreececFORTH-Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Biomedical Research, G.
authors: Themis P
authors: TP
authors: Exarchos
authors: University of Ioannina, Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, GR 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Panagiotis K
authors: PK
authors: Siogkas
authors: Ettore Sansavini Health Science Foundation, 48100 Ravenna, Italy.
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Ricciardi
authors: University of Ioannina, Medical School, Michaelidion Cardiac Center and Department of Cardiology, GR 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Katerina K
authors: KK
authors: Naka
authors: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School Cardiovascular Division, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
authors: Michail I
authors: MI
authors: Papafaklis
authors: University of Ioannina, Medical School, Michaelidion Cardiac Center and Department of Cardiology, GR 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors: Lampros K
authors: LK
authors: Michalis
authors: San Giovanni Hospital, Interventional Cardiology, Via dell'Amba Aradam 8, 00184 Rome, Italy.
authors: Francesco
authors: F
authors: Prati
authors: University of Ioannina, Unit of Medical Technology and Intelligent Information Systems, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, GR 45110 Ioannina, GreececFORTH-Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Biomedical Research, G.
authors: Dimitrios I
authors: DI
authors: Fotiadis
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002118:Calcium / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D058226:Plaque, Atherosclerotic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium