Implementation and use of 3D pairwise geodesic distance fields for seeding abdominal aortic vessels

SELVER M. A., Kavur A. E.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED RADIOLOGY AND SURGERY, vol.11, no.5, pp.803-816, 2016 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 11 Issue: 5
  • Publication Date: 2016
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/s11548-015-1321-z
  • Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED RADIOLOGY AND SURGERY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.803-816
  • Keywords: Path extraction, Geodesic distance, Abdominal aortic aneurysms, Computed tomography, LEVEL SET METHOD, VASCULAR TREE, SEGMENTATION, ANEURYSMS, TRACKING, EXTRACTION, REGION, PATHS, CTA
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Purpose Precise extraction of aorta and the vessels departing from it (i.e. coeliac, renal, and iliac) is vital for correct positioning of a graft prior to abdominal aortic surgery. To perform this task, most of the segmentation algorithms rely on seed points, and better-located seed points provide better initial positions for cross-sectional methods. Under non-optimal acquisition characteristics of daily clinical routine and complex morphology of these vessels, inserting seed points to all these small, but critically important vessels is a tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone task. Thus, in this paper, a novel strategy is developed to generate pathways between user-inserted seed points in order to initialize segmentation methods effectively.