title: Multi-region labeling and segmentation using a graph topology prior and atlas information in brain images.
abstract: Medical image segmentation and anatomical structure labeling according to the types of the tissues are important for accurate diagnosis and therapy. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for multi-region labeling and segmentation, which is based on a topological graph prior and the topological information of an atlas, using a modified multi-level set energy minimization method in brain images. We consider a topological graph prior and atlas information to evolve the contour based on a topological relationship presented via a graph relation. This novel method is capable of segmenting adjacent objects with very close gray level in low resolution brain image that would be difficult to segment correctly using standard methods. The topological information of an atlas are transformed to the topological graph of a low resolution (noisy) brain image to obtain region labeling. We explain our algorithm and show the topological graph prior and label transformation techniques to explain how it gives precise multi-region segmentation and labeling. The proposed algorithm is capable of segmenting and labeling different regions in noisy or low resolution MRI brain images of different modalities. We compare our approaches with other state-of-the-art approaches for multi-region labeling and segmentation.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Information Processing, Leibniz University Hanover, Appelstr. 9A, 30167 Hannover, Germany. Electronic address: shaikhli@tnt.uni-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Saif Dawood Salman
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Al-Shaikhli
authors.affiliation: Institute for Information Processing, Leibniz University Hanover, Appelstr. 9A, 30167 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael Ying
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute for Information Processing, Leibniz University Hanover, Appelstr. 9A, 30167 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Bodo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rosenhahn
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D004282:Documentation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: Atlas information; Labeling; Medical image; Multi-level set; Multi-region; Segmentation; Topological graph