Cortical surface and volume extraction through two-phase fast marching method

A cortical surface and volume extraction from 3D MRI images through two-phase fast marching method is proposed. In the first phase, 3D arrival-time field can be generated from the MRI images through the fast marching method, from which the inner and outer cortical surface can be extracted. In the second phase, the implicit surfaces (iso-surfaces) are defined by 3D arrival-time field, on which the fast marching method can performed to remove some `islands´ from generated iso-surfaces. A approach to compute the cortical volume is given. The experimental results show that the relative error is 1.35~1.42%.