一种新的心脏核磁共振图像分割方法

心脏核磁共振图像分割一直是医学影像分析领域的研究热点和难点,文中提出了一种基于梯度矢量流Snake模型的左心室分割方法.作为对梯度矢量流(GVF)的改进,提出了退化最小曲面梯度矢量流(dmsGVF).该模型对弱边界泄漏有更好的鲁棒性;挖掘了左心室的形状特点,采用相应的形状约束,克服了由于图像灰度不均而导致的局部极小,也大大减弱了分割结果对初始轮廓的依赖;对于左室壁外膜的分割,挖掘了左室壁内、外膜的位置关系,通过重新组合梯度分量来构造新的外力场.这种外力场能够克服原始梯度矢量流的不足,使得室壁外膜边缘很弱时也能得到保持,以左室壁内膜分割结果作为初始化能够自动地分割出左室壁外膜.实验结果表明,该方法能高效准确地同时分割左室壁内、外膜.     

一种基于主动轮廓模型的心脏核磁共振图像分割方法

提出一种基于主动轮廓模型的左室壁内、外膜分割方法.首先构造了主动轮廓模型的广义法向有偏梯度矢量流外力模型GNBGVF,作为对梯度矢量流(GVF)的改进,该外力场同时保持了切线方向和法线方向有偏的扩散,具有捕捉范围大、抗噪能力强,且在弱边界泄漏等问题上性能突出.就左室壁内膜的分割而言,考虑到左室壁的近似为圆形的特点,引入了圆形约束的能量项,有利于克服由于图像灰度不均、乳突肌等而导致的局部极小.对于左室壁外膜的分割,采用内膜的分割结果初始化,即通过重新组合梯度分量来构造外力场.该外力场能够克服原始梯度矢量流的不足,使得左室壁外膜边缘很弱时也能得到保持,可以自动、准确地分割外膜.实验结果表明,该方法能高效准确地分割左室壁内、外膜.     

一种基于广义梯度矢量流Snake模型的心脏MR图像分割方法

提出了一种基于广义梯度矢量流Snake模型的心脏核磁共振图像左心室内、外膜分割方法。首先构造了一种基于目标边缘的方向广义梯度矢量流(edge-based directional generalized gradient vector flow, EDGGVF) Snake模型,该模型在传统GGVF的基础上,结合目标边缘图梯度方向信息,将左心室内、外膜区分为正边缘和负边缘,从而实现左心室内外膜的全自动分割。其次,根据左心室近似为圆形的形状特点,引入了圆形能量约束,有利于克服由于图像灰度不均、乳突肌等引起的局部极小。实验结果表明,该方法可以高效准确地自动分割出左心室内、外膜。     

基于预测-校正改进Snake的心脏MR图像左心室外轮廓分割

在心脏MR图像中,由于左右心室结合处的灰度非常靠近,在左心室外轮廓上形成弱边界,基于Snake模型分割左心室外轮廓时就会有边界泄漏的问题.本文先定义了两种局部信息用于边缘增强,并构造了合理的外力场,然后将传统Snake模型的形变结果作为对轮廓新位置的预测,基于左心室外轮廓形状的先验知识对预测的结果进行校正,使得Snake的形变由预测、校正两步来完成.实验结果表明,这种预测-校正两步形变Snake模型对心脏MR图像左心室外轮廓分割有较好的效果.     

Seg-CapNet：心脏MRI图像分割神经网络模型

目的 针对现有神经网络模型需要对左心室心肌内膜和外膜单独建模的问题,本文提出了一种基于胶囊结构的心脏磁共振图像（magnetic resonance imaging,MRI）分割模型Seg-CapNet,旨在同时提取心肌内膜和外膜,并保证两者的空间位置关系。方法 首先利用胶囊网络将待分割目标转换成包含目标相对位置、颜色以及大小等信息的向量,然后使用全连接将这些向量的空间关系进行重组,最后采用反卷积对特征图进行上采样,将分割图还原为输入图像尺寸。在上采样过程中将每层特征图与卷积层的特征图进行连接,有助于图像细节还原以及模型的反向传播,加快训练过程。Seg-CapNet的输出向量不仅有图像的灰度、纹理等底层图像特征,还包含目标的位置、大小等语义特征,有效提升了目标图像的分割精度。为了进一步提高分割质量,还提出了一种新的损失函数用于约束分割结果以保持多目标区域间的相对位置关系。结果 在ACDC（automated cardiac diagnosis challenge）2017、MICCAI（medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention）2013和MICCAI2009等3个心脏MRI分割竞赛的公开数据集上对Seg-CapNet模型进行训练和验证,并与神经网络分割模型U-net和SegNet进行对比。实验结果表明,相对于U-Net和SegNet,Seg-CapNet同时分割目标重叠区域的平均Dice系数提升了3.5%,平均豪斯多夫距离（Hausdorff distance,HD）降低了18%。并且Seg-CapNet的参数量仅为U-Net的54%、SegNet的40%,在提升分割精度的同时,降低了训练时间和复杂度。结论 本文提出的Seg-CapNet模型在保证同时分割重叠区域目标的同时,降低了参数量,提升了训练速度,并保持了较好的左心室心肌内膜和外膜分割精度。     

结合水平集方法和形状约束Snake模型的左心室MRI图像分割

提出结合水平集方法和形状约束Snake模型的左心室MRI图像分割算法.由于左心室存在弱边缘、与周围的组织之间存在低对比度区域,Snake模型分割左心室MRI图像时,将会出现变形曲线泄漏现象.通过对训练图像的配准、变化模式的分析,定义左心室的边界形状变化允许空间.根据心脏MRI图像的特点,使用水平集方法在平均形状周围构造形状约束能量场.在Snake模型中增加形状约束能量项后,能够有效处理变形曲线的泄漏问题.通过将演化曲线投影到形状允许空间,对其施加形状约束.心脏MRI图像的分割实验证明了模型的有效性.     

基于Snake模型的图像分割新算法

针对目前基于Snake模型的图像分割算法普遍存在噪声鲁棒性差、适用范围受限、易发生弱边缘泄露以及轮廓曲线难以收敛到细小深凹边界的缺陷,提出了一种基于Snake模型的图像分割新算法。首先,选取新的扩散项代替具有各向同性光滑作用的拉普拉斯算子;其次,引入p-拉普拉斯泛函到平滑能量项中强化法线方向外力;最后,利用边缘保护项使外力场方向与边缘方向一致,以防止弱边缘泄漏并促使轮廓线收敛到细小深凹边界。实验结果表明,所提模型不仅克服了现有基于Snake模型的图像分割算法的缺陷,具有更好的分割效果,明显提高了抗噪性能和角点定位精度,而且耗时更少,适用于噪声图像、医学图像以及含有很多弱边缘的自然图像分割。     

针对弱边缘信息的左心室图像分割算法

基于距离正则水平集模型（DRLSE）的左心室MR图像分割算法对梯度信息有很强的依赖性,在图像弱边缘区域容易陷入局部最优,且对初始轮廓的选取敏感。为降低算法对初始轮廓的敏感程度,提高其在左心室图像弱边缘的分割能力,提出一种适用于弱边缘信息的左心室分割算法。在DRLSE的基础上,该分割算法提出运用拟合方法计算基于变异系数分割模型（PSM）的新局部项,算法依靠梯度与图像局部信息驱动曲线演化,降低了DRLSE对初始轮廓的敏感度;引入形状约束力,克服DRLSE算法在左心室外膜弱边界处出现边界泄露的情况。为验证所提算法分割的准确性,基于多伦多市患病儿童医院影像科提供的数据库,利用DRLSE、保持凸性水平集模型（CPLSE）模型、U-Net网络以及提出的内膜算法对心内膜进行分割;利用DRLSE、引入外膜形状约束力的DRLSE模型（DRLSE-shape）、U-Net网络以及提出的外膜算法对心外膜进行分割。实验结果表明,针对左心室内、外膜,所提算法优于上述算法,能降低DRLSE对初始轮廓的敏感程度,提升对左心室弱边界MR图像分割的精确度。     

一种基于断点处边缘方向保持假设的闭合轮廓提取方法

文中提出了一种新颖的闭合轮廓提取方法.分析了当GVF Snake模型处理边缘断裂的图像时,存在无法提取目标原始轮廓信息,尤其是目标边角信息的问题.在GVF外力场演化的能量模型的基础上,基于保持断点处边缘原方向的假设,提出了一种新的具有边角保持特性的能量模型,由此模型得到了边角保持GVF(CP-GVF)外力场.CP-GVF外力场解决了当目标轮廓发生断裂时断点对于GVF外力场的影响问题,能够根据断点处的边缘方向信息,以保持该边缘方向的方式恢复目标轮廓中丢失的边角信息,从而恢复这类目标的原始形状.不同边缘结构的仿真图像和真实图像的实验结果验证了算法的性能.     

基于图划分的形状统计主动轮廓模型心脏MR图像分割

为有效分析心脏功能,高精度分割左、右心室是必要的.心脏MR图像中存在图像灰度不均,左、右心室及周围其它组织灰度接近,存在弱边缘、边缘断裂及噪声造成边缘模糊等现象,给精确分割左、右心室轮廓带来困难.本文在基于图划分的主动轮廓方法基础上,通过对训练形状进行配准及变化模式分析,定义左、右心室轮廓形状变化允许空间,提出基于图划分的形状统计主动轮廓模型来分割心脏MR图像.该方法通过图划分理论将图像分割问题转化为最优化问题,所以能够得到全局最优解,具有较大的捕捉范围.还引入形状统计来引导曲线的演化,有效处理曲线演化时存在的边缘泄漏问题,提高分割精度.实验结果表明,本文方法较以往方法具有更高的分割精度和更好的稳定性,为临床应用提供一种较可行的方法.     

MR心脏序列图像左心室内外壁联合分割和时序追踪新方法

MR心脏图像左心室内外壁的自动分割是计算机辅助心功能诊断的前提。本文提出了一种MR心脏图像的左心室内外壁的联合分割和时序追踪的新方法。首先用改进几何动态轮廓线算法分割一帧3维MR图像中的左心室内壁,然后通过时序追踪得到同一层面各帧的内壁轮廓。分割外壁时,以内壁为初始轮廓,设计一种由距离和区域灰度均值约束的区域膨胀力,分割心室的外壁。在临床实际心电门控动态4D心脏MRI序列图像上的实验结果表明,算法分割左心室的内外壁的结果和专家手动分割结果很接近;并且根据心室内外壁分割结果建立的左心室3维模型,可以计算出几种重要的临床心功能指标。     

结合Hough变换与测地线轮廓模型的MR图像左心室自动分割

通过对MR图像左心室分割中各种主流方法的分析,提出一种自动分割MR图像左心室内外轮廓的算法.利用短轴图像上左心室心肌内外轮廓近似圆形的先验形状知识,先用Hough变换自动定位左心室的初始轮廓,然后在测地线轮廓模型基础上,结合K均值聚类提供的区域信息及心肌的生理结构约束对左心室的内外轮廓同时进行自动分割.实验结果表明,该算法能够有效地分割左心室内外轮廓.     

Segmentation of the left ventricle in cardiac cine MRI using a shape-constrained snake model

Segmentation of the left ventricle (LV) is a hot topic in cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images analysis. In this paper, we present an automatic LV myocardial boundary segmentation method using the parametric active contour model (or snake model). By convolving the gradient map of an image, a fast external force named gradient vector convolution (GVC) is presented for the snake model. A circle-based energy is incorporated into the GVC snake model to extract the endocardium. With this prior constraint, the snake contour can conquer the unexpected local minimum stemming from artifacts and papillary muscle, etc. After the endocardium is detected, the original edge map around and within the endocardium is directly set to zero. This modified edge map is used to generate a new GVC force filed, which automatically pushes the snake contour directly to the epicardium by employing the endocardium result as initialization. Meanwhile, a novel shape-similarity based energy is proposed to prevent the snake contour from being strapped in faulty edges and to preserve weak boundaries. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluations on our dataset and the publicly available database (e.g. MICCAI 2009) demonstrate the good performance of our algorithm.     

Multiphase B-spline level set and incremental shape priors with applications to segmentation and tracking of left ventricle in cardiac MR images

This paper presents a new multiphase active contour model for object segmentation and tracking. The paper introduces an energy functional which incorporates image feature information to drive contours toward desired boundaries, and shape priors to constrain the evolution of the contours with respect to reference shapes. The shape priors, in the model, are constructed by performing the incremental principal component analysis (iPCA) on a set of training shapes and newly available shapes which are the resulted shapes derived from preceding segmented images. By performing iPCA, the shape priors are updated without repeatedly performing PCA on the entire training set including the existing shapes and the newly available shapes. In addition, by incrementally updating the resulted shape information of consecutive frames, the approach allows to encode shape priors even when the database of training shapes is not available. Moreover, in shape alignment steps, we exploit the shape normalization procedure, which takes into account the affine transformation, to directly calculate pose transformations instead of solving a set of coupled partial differential equations as in gradient descent-based approaches. Besides, we represent the level set functions as linear combinations of continuous basic functions expressed on B-spline basics for a fast convergence to the segmentation solution. The model is applied to simultaneously segment/track both the endocardium and epicardium of left ventricle from cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images. Experimental results show the desired performances of the proposed model.     

Segmentation of cardiac tagged MR images using a snake model based on hybrid gradient vector flow

In the segmentation of cardiac tagging magnetic resonance (tMR) images, it is difficult to segment the left ventricle automatically by using the traditional segmentation model because of the interference caused by the tags. A new snake model based on hybrid gradient vector flow (HGVF) is proposed by us to improve this segmentation. Due to the different characteristics between endocardium and epicardium of the left ventricle (LV), several gradient vector flows (GVFs) with distinctive boundary information would be fused to segment these two sub regions individually. For segmentation of endocardium, we construct a new HGVF in snake model fused by three independent GVFs. These flows are respectively exported from the original cardiac tMR image, the tags-removed image and the local-filtered image. On the other hand, since the epicardium is with a nearly-circle shape, we construct the other HGVF which is composed of two different GVFs. One of them is derived from the tags-removed image either and the other one is derived from the ideal circle-shape image. Some experiments have been done to validate our new segmentation model. The average overlap of the endocardium segmentation is 89.67% (its mean absolute distance is 1.86 pixels), and the average overlap of the epicardium segmentation is 95.88% (its mean absolute distance is 1.64 pixels). Experimental results show that the proposed method improves the segmentation performance compared to some available methods effectively.     

Automated Segmentation of Left Ventricle Using Local and Global Intensity Based Active Contour and Dynamic Programming

The aim of this work is to develop an improved region based active contour and dynamic programming based method for accurate segmentation of left ventricle (LV) from multi-slice cine short axis cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images. Intensity inhomogeneity and weak object boundaries present in MR images hinder the segmentation accuracy. The proposed active contour model driven by a local Gaussian distribution fitting (LGDF) energy and an auxiliary global intensity fitting energy improves the accuracy of endocardial boundary detection. The weightage of the global energy fitting term is dynamically adjusted using a spatially varying weight function. Dynamic programming scheme proposed for the segmentation of epicardium considers the myocardium probability map and a distance weighted edge map in the cost matrix. Radial distance weighted technique and conical geometry are employed for segmenting the basal slices with left ventricle outflow tract (LVOT) and most apical slices. The proposed method is validated on a public dataset comprising 45 subjects from medical image computing and computer assisted interventions (MICCAI) 2009 segmentation challenge. The average percentage of good endocardial and epicardial contours detected is about 99%, average perpendicular distance of the detected good contours from the manual reference contours is 1.95 mm, and the dice similarity coefficient between the detected contours and the reference contours is 0.91. Correlation coefficient and the coefficient of determination between the ejection fraction measurements from manual segmentation and the automated method are respectively 0.978 1 and 0.956 7, for LV mass these values are 0.924 9 and 0.855 4. Statistical analysis of the results reveals a good agreement between the clinical parameters determined manually and those estimated using the automated method.     

基于方向Snake模型的心脏磁共振图像左心室内外膜分割

针对心脏磁共振图像(MRI)左心室内膜与外膜边缘方向不同的特点,提出一种基于曲线演化框架的方向主动轮廓模型进行左心室内外膜分割。曲线演化方程中包含基于图像边缘与区域灰度特征的混合几何流。几何流中的边缘信息项由经Fast Marching方法扩展后的动态方向梯度矢量流场（DDGVF）构成,用以引导曲线向具有不同方向的目标边缘运动,而区域灰度信息项则由Chan-Vese (CV)模型构成,用以防止曲线在演化过程中受其他边缘成分的影响而发生泄漏。最终的曲线演化方程采用水平集方法求解。实验结果表明,所提方法能够较为准确地分割出心脏MRI图像中的左心室内外膜并具有较好的鲁棒性,对于实现基于心脏MRI图像的左心室心肌区域自动快速分割和心脏功能分析与评价具有一定的应用价值。