Surface-region context in optimal multi-object graph-based segmentation: robust delineation of pulmonary tumors

Inf Process Med Imaging. 2011:22:61-72. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-22092-0_6.

Abstract

Multi-object segmentation with mutual interaction is a challenging task in medical image analysis. We report a novel solution to a segmentation problem, in which target objects of arbitrary shape mutually interact with terrain-like surfaces, which widely exists in the medical imaging field. The approach incorporates context information used during simultaneous segmentation of multiple objects. The object-surface interaction information is encoded by adding weighted inter-graph arcs to our graph model. A globally optimal solution is achieved by solving a single maximum flow problem in a low-order polynomial time. The performance of the method was evaluated in robust delineation of lung tumors in megavoltage cone-beam CT images in comparison with an expert-defined independent standard. The evaluation showed that our method generated highly accurate tumor segmentations. Compared with the conventional graph-cut method, our new approach provided significantly better results (p < 0.001). The Dice coefficient obtained by the conventional graph-cut approach (0.76 +/- 0.10) was improved to 0.84 +/- 0.05 when employing our new method for pulmonary tumor segmentation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / diagnostic imaging*
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / methods*
  • Radiographic Image Enhancement / methods
  • Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*