Carotid artery segmentation and plaque quantification in CTA

Authors:
Danijela Vukadinovic;Theo van Walsum;Sietske Rozie;Thomas de Weert;Rashindra Manniesing;Aad van der Lugt;Wiro Niessen
Affiliations:
Bimedical Imaging Group, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam;Bimedical Imaging Group, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam;Department of Radiology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam;Department of Radiology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam;Bimedical Imaging Group, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam;Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology;Bimedical Imaging Group, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam and Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology
Venue:
ISBI'09 Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE international conference on Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro
Year:
2009

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Applications of deformable models for in-dopth analysis and feature extraction from medical images--A review

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Abstract

A novel, slice-based, semi-automatic method for plaque segmentation and quantification in CTA of carotid arteries is introduced. The method starts with semi-automatic, levelset based, lumen segmentation initialized with three points. Pixel based GentleBoost classification is used to segment the inner and outer vessel wall region using distance from the lumen, intensity and Gaussian derivatives as features. 3D calcified regions located within the vessel wall are segmented using a similar set of features and the same classification method. Subsequently, an ellipse-shaped deformable model is fitted using the inner-outer vessel wall and calcium classification, and plaque components within the wall are characterized using HU ranges. The method is quantitatively evaluated on 5 carotid arteries. Vessel and plaque segmentation are compared to the interobserver variability. Furthermore, correlation of slice-based plaque component quantification with the ground truth values is determined. The accuracy of our method is comparable to the interobserver variability.