title: Breast tumor segmentation in high resolution x-ray phase contrast analyzer based computed tomography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Phase contrast computed tomography has emerged as an imaging method, which is able to outperform present day clinical mammography in breast tumor visualization while maintaining an equivalent average dose. To this day, no segmentation technique takes into account the specificity of the phase contrast signal. In this study, the authors propose a new mathematical framework for human-guided breast tumor segmentation. This method has been applied to high-resolution images of excised human organs, each of several gigabytes.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors present a segmentation procedure based on the viscous watershed transform and demonstrate the efficacy of this method on analyzer based phase contrast images. The segmentation of tumors inside two full human breasts is then shown as an example of this procedure's possible applications.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A correct and precise identification of the tumor boundaries was obtained and confirmed by manual contouring performed independently by four experienced radiologists.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors demonstrate that applying the watershed viscous transform allows them to perform the segmentation of tumors in high-resolution x-ray analyzer based phase contrast breast computed tomography images. Combining the additional information provided by the segmentation procedure with the already high definition of morphological details and tissue boundaries offered by phase contrast imaging techniques, will represent a valuable multistep procedure to be used in future medical diagnostic applications.
authors.affiliation: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble 380000, France and Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Garching 85748, Germany.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brun
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grandl
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sztrókay-Gaul
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barbone
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Garching 85748, Germany and Institute for Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mittone
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gasilov
authors.affiliation: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble 380000, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bravin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Garching 85748, Germany and Institute for Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Coan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014783:Viscosity