title: Automatic Identification of Cochlear Implant Electrode Arrays for Post-Operative Assessment.
abstract: Cochlear implantation is a procedure performed to treat profound hearing loss. Accurately determining the postoperative position of the implant in vivo would permit studying the correlations between implant position and hearing restoration. To solve this problem, we present an approach based on parametric Gradient Vector Flow snakes to segment the electrode array in post-operative CT. By combining this with existing methods for localizing intra-cochlear anatomy, we have developed a system that permits accurate assessment of the implant position in vivo. The system is validated using a set of seven temporal bone specimens. The algorithms were run on pre- and post-operative CTs of the specimens, and the results were compared to histological images. It was found that the position of the arrays observed in the histological images is in excellent agreement with the position of their automatically generated 3D reconstructions in the CT scans.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Comp. Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA.
authors.forename: Jack H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Noble
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA.
authors.forename: Theodore A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Schuman
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Otolaryngology, Southwestern University, Dallas, TX 75390, USA.
authors.forename: Charles G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA.
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Labadie
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Comp. Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA.
authors.forename: Benoit M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Dawant
keywords: Cochlear Implant; Contour Advance; Snake Segmentation