title: Computer-aided detection of intracoronary stent in intravascular ultrasound sequences.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An intraluminal coronary stent is a metal mesh tube deployed in a stenotic artery during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), in order to prevent acute vessel occlusion. The identification of struts location and the definition of the stent shape is relevant for PCI planning and for patient follow-up. The authors present a fully automatic framework for computer-aided detection (CAD) of intracoronary stents in intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) image sequences. The CAD system is able to detect stent struts and estimate the stent shape.
  
  
  METHODS
  The proposed CAD uses machine learning to provide a comprehensive interpretation of the local structure of the vessel by means of semantic classification. The output of the classification stage is then used to detect struts and to estimate the stent shape. The proposed approach is validated using a multicentric data-set of 1,015 images from 107 IVUS sequences containing both metallic and bioabsorbable stents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The method was able to detect struts in both metallic stents with an overall F-measure of 77.7% and a mean distance of 0.15 mm from manually annotated struts, and in bioabsorbable stents with an overall F-measure of 77.4% and a mean distance of 0.09 mm from manually annotated struts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results are close to the interobserver variability and suggest that the system has the potential of being used as a method for aiding percutaneous interventions.
authors: Diagnostic Image Analysis Group of Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, 6525 GA Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors: Francesco
authors: F
authors: Ciompi
authors: Department of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Barcelona, Gran Via 585, Barcelona 08007,Spain and Computer Vision Center, Bellaterra 08193, Spain.
authors: Simone
authors: S
authors: Balocco
authors: InspireMD, Boston, Massachusetts 02116.
authors: Juan
authors: J
authors: Rigla
authors: University Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona 08916, Spain.
authors: Xavier
authors: X
authors: Carrillo
authors: University Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona 08916, Spain.
authors: Josepa
authors: J
authors: Mauri
authors: Department of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Barcelona, Gran Via 585, Barcelona 08007, Spain and Computer Vision Center, Bellaterra 08193, Spain.
authors: Petia
authors: P
authors: Radeva
mesh_terms: D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015607:Stents