Automatic detection of liver capsule using Gabor Filters. Applications in steatosis quantification

In this paper we present a new method of detecting hepatic capsule and other large structures from liver ultrasound images. Local texture anisotropy is evaluated using a specially designed bank of Gabor filters. We show that the proposed method is robust with respect to its parameters and is well suited for processing liver ultrasound images. Two human experts evaluate the method in conjunction with Canny edge detector and a method based on phase congruency. A practical application in quantifying the diffuse liver steatosis is presented. We show that proposed method can successfully replace the human expert in establishing the regions of interest used in steatosis quantification.