Title :
Towards an Automatic Coronary Artery Segmentation Algorithm
Author :
Fallavollita, Pascal ; Cheriet, Farida
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Biomed. Eng., Ecole Polytech. de Montreal, Que.
fDate :
Aug. 30 2006-Sept. 3 2006
Abstract :
A method is presented that aims at minimizing image processing time during X-ray fluoroscopy interventions. First, an automatic frame extraction algorithm is proposed in order to extract relevant image frames with respect to their cardiac phase (systole or diastole). Secondly, a 4-step filter is suggested in order to enhance vessel contours. The reciprocal of the enhanced image is used as an alternative speed function to initialize the fast marching method. The complete algorithm was tested on eight clinical angiographic data sets and comparisons with two other vessel enhancement filters (Lorenz and Frangi) are made for the centerline extraction procedure. In order to assess the suitability of our filter the extracted centerline coordinates are compared with the manually traced axis
Keywords :
blood vessels; cardiovascular system; diagnostic radiography; feature extraction; image enhancement; image segmentation; medical image processing; X-ray fluoroscopy interventions; automatic coronary artery segmentation algorithm; automatic frame extraction algorithm; cardiac phase; centerline extraction procedure; clinical angiographic data sets; diastolic phase; fast marching method; four-step filter; image enhancement; systolic phase; vessel contour; Arteries; Biomedical engineering; Cities and towns; Costs; Data mining; Filters; Image analysis; Image segmentation; USA Councils; X-ray imaging;
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2006. EMBS '06. 28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
New York, NY
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0032-5
Electronic_ISBN :
1557-170X
DOI :
10.1109/IEMBS.2006.260614
