title: Automatic Coronary Artery Segmentation Using Active Search for Branches and Seemingly Disconnected Vessel Segments from Coronary CT Angiography.
abstract: We propose a Bayesian tracking and segmentation method of coronary arteries on coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA). The geometry of coronary arteries including lumen boundary is estimated in Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) framework. Three consecutive sphere based filtering is combined with a stochastic process that is based on the similarity of the consecutive local neighborhood voxels and the geometric constraint of a vessel. It is also founded on the prior knowledge that an artery can be seen locally disconnected and consist of branches which may be seemingly disconnected due to plaque build up. For such problem, an active search method is proposed to find branches and seemingly disconnected but actually connected vessel segments. Several new measures have been developed for branch detection, disconnection check and planar vesselness measure. Using public domain Rotterdam CT dataset, the accuracy of extracted centerline is demonstrated and automatic reconstruction of coronary artery mesh is shown.
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University, College of Medicine, 134 Sinchon, Seodaemun, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Dongjin
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1093-1741
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University, College of Medicine, 134 Sinchon, Seodaemun, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hackjoon
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shim
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University, College of Medicine, 134 Sinchon, Seodaemun, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Byunghwan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University, College of Medicine, 134 Sinchon, Seodaemun, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yeonggul
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University, College of Medicine, 134 Sinchon, Seodaemun, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Youngtaek
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University, College of Medicine, 134 Sinchon, Seodaemun, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sunghee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University, College of Medicine, 134 Sinchon, Seodaemun, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Seongmin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.affiliation: Yonsei University, College of Medicine, 134 Sinchon, Seodaemun, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyuk-Jae
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D000072226:Computed Tomography Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013269:Stochastic Processes