title: A nonparametric shape prior constrained active contour model for segmentation of coronaries in CTA images.
abstract: We present a nonparametric shape constrained algorithm for segmentation of coronary arteries in computed tomography images within the framework of active contours. An adaptive scale selection scheme, based on the global histogram information of the image data, is employed to determine the appropriate window size for each point on the active contour, which improves the performance of the active contour model in the low contrast local image regions. The possible leakage, which cannot be identified by using intensity features alone, is reduced through the application of the proposed shape constraint, where the shape of circular sampled intensity profile is used to evaluate the likelihood of current segmentation being considered vascular structures. Experiments on both synthetic and clinical datasets have demonstrated the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method. The results on clinical datasets have shown that the proposed approach is capable of extracting more detailed coronary vessels with subvoxel accuracy.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China ; College of Astronautics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China.
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Virtual Reality Technology and Systems, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D015233:Models, Statistical; D016011:Normal Distribution; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012984:Software; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*