Techniques for the Automated Segmentation of Lung in Thoracic Computed Tomography Scans

Computed Tomography (CT) is widely used to diagnose and assess thoracic diseases. The improved resolution of CT studies has resulted in a substantial increase of image data for analysis by radiologists. The time-consuming nature of this analysis motivates the application of Computer-Aided Diagnostic (CAD) methods to assist radiologists. Most CAD methods require identification of the lung within the patient images, a preprocessing step known as “lung segmentation.” This chapter describes an intensity-based lung segmentation method. The segmentation method begins with simple thresholding, and several image processing modules are included to improve segmentation accuracy and robustness. Common segmentation difficulties are discussed and motivate the inclusion of each module in the lung segmentation method. These modules will include brief explanations of common techniques (e.g., morphological operators) in addition to novel techniques developed specifically for lung segmentation (e.g., gradient correlation filters).

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