Abstract
Anatomical structures contain various types of curvilinear or tube-like structures such as blood vessels and bronchial trees. In medical imaging, the extraction and representation of such structures are of clinical importance. Complex curvilinear structures can be best represented by their center lines (or skeletons) along their elongated direction. In this paper, & gradient-based method for ridge point extraction on tubular objects is presented. Using the gradients of distance maps or intensity profiles usually generates skeleton surfaces for 3D objects, which is not desirable for representing tubular objects. To extract only the points on the centerline, we first employ the gradient vector flow (GVF) technique and then apply eigenanalysis of the Hessian matrix to remove false positive points. We present various results of the method using CLSM (Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy) images of blood fibrins and CT images of a skull and lungs. Our method is efficient and allows for completely automatic extraction of points along the centerline of a tubular object in its elongated direction.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 158-165 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Lecture Notes in Computer Science |
Volume | 2879 |
Issue number | PART 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2003 |
Event | Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2003 - 6th International Conference Proceedings - Montreal, Que., Canada Duration: Nov 15 2003 → Nov 18 2003 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Theoretical Computer Science
- General Computer Science