Graph cut segmentation with a statistical shape model in cardiac MRI

Segmenting the right ventricle (RV) in magnetic resonance (MR) images is required for cardiac function assessment. The segmentation of the RV is a difficult task due to low contrast with surrounding tissues and high shape variability. To overcome these problems, we introduce a segmentation method based on a statistical shape model obtained with a principal component analysis (PCA) on a set of representative shapes of the RV. Shapes are not represented by a set of points, but by distance maps to their contour, relaxing the need for a costly landmark detection and matching process. A shape model is thus obtained by computing a PCA on the shape variations. This prior is registered onto the image via a very simple user interaction and then incorporated into the well-known graph cut framework in order to guide the segmentation. Our semi-automatic segmentation method has been applied on 248 MR images of a publicly available dataset (from MICCAI'12 Right Ventricle Segmentation Challenge). We show that encouraging results can be obtained for this challenging application.

[1]  Xin Yang,et al.  A shape prior constraint for implicit active contours , 2011, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[2]  Stefan Klein,et al.  Fully automatic cardiac segmentation from 3D CTA data: a multi-atlas based approach , 2010, Medical Imaging.

[3]  Marie-Pierre Jolly,et al.  Interactive Graph Cuts for Optimal Boundary and Region Segmentation of Objects in N-D Images , 2001, ICCV.

[4]  Vladimir Kolmogorov,et al.  An experimental comparison of min-cut/max- flow algorithms for energy minimization in vision , 2001, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[5]  Hüseyin Tek,et al.  Comprehensive Cardiovascular Image Analysis Using MR and CT at Siemens Corporate Research , 2006, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[6]  B. S. Manjunath,et al.  Shape prior segmentation of multiple objects with graph cuts , 2008, 2008 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[7]  Lawrence H. Staib,et al.  Boundary finding with correspondence using statistical shape models , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (Cat. No.98CB36231).

[8]  Alejandro F. Frangi,et al.  Statistical Modeling and Segmentation in Cardiac MRI Using a Grid Computing Approach , 2005, EGC.

[9]  Marie-Pierre Jolly,et al.  Interactive graph cuts for optimal boundary & region segmentation of objects in N-D images , 2001, Proceedings Eighth IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision. ICCV 2001.

[10]  Olga Veksler,et al.  Semiautomatic segmentation with compact shape prior , 2009, Image Vis. Comput..

[11]  Yi Gao,et al.  Multiscale 3D shape representation and segmentation with applications to hippocampal/caudate extraction from brain MRI , 2012, Medical Image Anal..

[12]  Wiro J Niessen,et al.  Automatic image‐driven segmentation of the ventricles in cardiac cine MRI , 2008, Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI.

[13]  Hugues Talbot,et al.  4D Morphological segmentation and the MICCAI LV-segmentation grand challenge , 2009, The MIDAS Journal.

[14]  Nikos Paragios,et al.  Shape Priors for Level Set Representations , 2002, ECCV.

[15]  Yogesh Rathi,et al.  Graph Cut Segmentation with Nonlinear Shape Priors , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing.

[16]  Hongsheng Li,et al.  Active Volume Models for Medical Image Segmentation , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[17]  Gareth Funka-Lea,et al.  Automatic heart isolation for CT coronary visualization using graph-cuts , 2006, 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro, 2006..

[18]  Ramin Zabih,et al.  Graph Cuts Segmentation with Statistical Shape Priors for Medical Images , 2007, 2007 Third International IEEE Conference on Signal-Image Technologies and Internet-Based System.

[19]  S. Hunt,et al.  Right Ventricular Function in Cardiovascular Disease, Part I: Anatomy, Physiology, Aging, and Functional Assessment of the Right Ventricle , 2008, Circulation.

[20]  Olga Veksler,et al.  Star Shape Prior for Graph-Cut Image Segmentation , 2008, ECCV.

[21]  Rachid Deriche,et al.  A Review of Statistical Approaches to Level Set Segmentation: Integrating Color, Texture, Motion and Shape , 2007, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[22]  Alejandro F Frangi,et al.  Active shape models with invariant optimal features (IOF-ASM) application to cardiac MRI segmentation , 2003, Computers in Cardiology, 2003.

[23]  Tao Zhang,et al.  Interactive graph cut based segmentation with shape priors , 2005, 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05).

[24]  José M. F. Moura,et al.  Cardiac MR image segmentation: quality assessment of STACS , 2004, 2004 2nd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro (IEEE Cat No. 04EX821).

[25]  W. Eric L. Grimson,et al.  Coupling Statistical Segmentation and PCA Shape Modeling , 2004, MICCAI.

[26]  M. Turk,et al.  Eigenfaces for Recognition , 1991, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[27]  Gregory G. Slabaugh,et al.  Graph cuts segmentation using an elliptical shape prior , 2005, IEEE International Conference on Image Processing 2005.

[28]  Milan Sonka,et al.  Multistage hybrid active appearance model matching: segmentation of left and right ventricles in cardiac MR images , 2001, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[29]  Jie Zhu-Jacquot,et al.  Graph Cuts Segmentation with Geometric Shape Priors for Medical Images , 2008, 2008 IEEE Southwest Symposium on Image Analysis and Interpretation.

[30]  J.H.C. Reiber,et al.  Automated detection of left ventricular epi- and endocardial contours in short-axis MR images , 1994, Computers in Cardiology 1994.

[31]  Olivier D. Faugeras,et al.  Shape Statistics for Image Segmentation with Prior , 2007, 2007 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[32]  Junzhou Huang,et al.  Towards robust and effective shape modeling: Sparse shape composition , 2012, Medical Image Anal..

[33]  Timothy F. Cootes,et al.  A Minimum Description Length Approach to Statistical Shape Modelling , 2001 .

[34]  Timothy F. Cootes,et al.  Active Shape Models-Their Training and Application , 1995, Comput. Vis. Image Underst..

[35]  Brian B. Avants,et al.  Adaptive graph cuts with tissue priors for brain MRI segmentation , 2006, 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro, 2006..

[36]  Caroline Petitjean,et al.  A review of segmentation methods in short axis cardiac MR images , 2011, Medical Image Anal..

[37]  Hervé Delingette,et al.  Deformable biomechanical models: Application to 4D cardiac image analysis , 2003, Medical Image Anal..

[38]  W. Eric L. Grimson,et al.  A shape-based approach to the segmentation of medical imagery using level sets , 2003, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[39]  Daniel Cremers,et al.  Nonlinear Shape Statistics in Mumford-Shah Based Segmentation , 2002, ECCV.

[40]  Vladimir Kolmogorov,et al.  An Experimental Comparison of Min-Cut/Max-Flow Algorithms for Energy Minimization in Vision , 2004, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[41]  Leo Grady,et al.  A multilevel banded graph cuts method for fast image segmentation , 2005, Tenth IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV'05) Volume 1.

[42]  Olivier D. Faugeras,et al.  Statistical shape influence in geodesic active contours , 2000, Proceedings IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. CVPR 2000 (Cat. No.PR00662).

[43]  Timothy F. Cootes,et al.  A minimum description length approach to statistical shape modeling , 2002, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[44]  Juha Koikkalainen,et al.  Statistical shape model of atria, ventricles and epicardium from short- and long-axis MR images , 2004, Medical Image Anal..

[45]  W. Eric L. Grimson,et al.  Using the logarithm of odds to define a vector space on probabilistic atlases , 2007, Medical Image Anal..

[46]  Daniel Rueckert,et al.  Segmentation of 4D cardiac MR images using a probabilistic atlas and the EM algorithm , 2004, Medical Image Anal..

[47]  Ramin Zabih,et al.  Segmentation of the left ventricle in cardiac MR images using graph cuts with parametric shape priors , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing.

[48]  Timothy F. Cootes,et al.  A Unified Framework for Atlas Matching Using Active Appearance Models , 1999, IPMI.