An empirical parameter selection method for border identification algorithms

Identification of the cardiac borders is a basic goal in the analysis of echocardiographic images. For this reason there has been a great deal of interest in automatic border identification methods. Numerous studies have been published, describing a wide variety of proposed methods. In spite of the large number of published studies, however the relative merits of the various methods remain unclear. Furthermore, the optimal configuration of each method is in most cases unknown. One of the reasons for this is the lack of a well-defined rigorous method for evaluating and comparing alternative algorithms and/or configurations. The authors have implemented a systematic, empirical procedure for evaluating border identification algorithms. The method is based on a metrical measure of border error and a set of test images which reflect the heterogeneity of typical clinical images. The methodology can be used to compare alternative analysis methods, or to determine the optimal configuration for any particular analysis method