Automatic detection of blood vessels from CTA images employing morphological operation

Recently, the disease arteriosclerosis has rapidly increased, and in particular the type that originates in the peripheral arteries of the hands and feet and is called arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO). ASO is one of the typical diseases that cause chronic ischemia of the limbs and lead to obstruction of the blood flow. In diagnosing ASO, lower contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) is useful for observing the arteries. However, it is a huge task for radiologists to separate accurately only the arteries which are involved in the disease, using the manual or semiautomatic proprietary software which is supplied for lower computed tomographic angiography (CTA). We have developed a new technique for the detection of arteries from CTA images by the use of a morphological operation. In this technique an N-Quoit filter, which is a useful filter for the detection of lung nodules, is applied to identify the arteries in CTA images. Some experimental results have shown good performance in the segmentation of arteries. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008