title: A method of localization and segmentation of intervertebral discs in spine MRI based on Gabor filter bank.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Spine magnetic resonance image (MRI) plays a very important role in the diagnosis of various spinal diseases, such as disc degeneration, scoliosis, and osteoporosis. Accurate localization and segmentation of the intervertebral disc (IVD) in spine MRI can help accelerate the diagnosis time and assist in the treatment by providing quantitative parameters. In this paper, a method based on Gabor filter bank is proposed for IVD localization and segmentation.
  
  
  METHODS
  First, the structural features of IVDs are extracted using a Gabor filter bank. Second, the Gabor features of spine are calculated and spinal curves are detected. Third, the Gabor feature images (GFI) of IVDs are calculated and adjusted according to the spinal curves. Fourth, the IVDs are localized by clustering analysis with GFI. Finally, an optimum grayscale-based algorithm with self-adaptive threshold, combined with the localization results and Gabor features of the spine, is performed for IVDs segmentation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proposed method is verified by an MRI dataset consisting of 278 IVDs from 37 patients. The accuracy of localization is 98.23 % and the dice similarity index for segmentation evaluation is 0.9237.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The proposed Gabor filter based method is effective for IVD localization and segmentation. It would be useful in computer-aided diagnosis of IVD diseases and computer-assisted spine surgery.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury, Fifth Department, Research Institute of Field Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA, Chongqing, 400042, China.
authors.forename: Xinjian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: College of Communication Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China.
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: College of Communication Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China.
authors.forename: Pin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury, Fifth Department, Research Institute of Field Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA, Chongqing, 400042, China.
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury, Fifth Department, Research Institute of Field Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA, Chongqing, 400042, China.
authors.forename: Dandan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics, 113th Hospital, Ningbo, 315040, Zhejiang, China. cjw941@sina.com.
authors.forename: Jiwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Trauma, Burn and Combined Injury, Fifth Department, Research Institute of Field Surgery, Daping Hospital, Third Military Medical University of Chinese PLA, Chongqing, 400042, China. wbm@vip.163.com.
authors.forename: Baoming
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007403:Intervertebral Disc; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D000069558:Unsupervised Machine Learning
keywords: Gabor filter; Intervertebral disc; Localization; Magnetic resonance image; Segmentation