Automatic segmentation of the carotid artery in ultrasound B-mode images

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2013

Authors

André M. F. Santos (Author) Other; João Manuel R. S. Tavares (Author) FEUP; Elsa Azevedo (Author) Other; Luísa Sousa (Author) FEUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: IRF2013 - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Integrity, Reliability and failure

IRF2013-4th International Conference on Integrity, Reliability and Failure

Funchal, Portugal, 23-27 June 2013

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology

CORDIS: Technological sciences

Other information

Abstract (EN): B-mode ultrasound imaging is well-known and used in the medical imaging field; however, it presents various difficulties, specifically in tasks of image segmentation and surface reconstruction, due to intrinsic adverse characteristics, such like low contrast and noise [1,2]. Despite this, B-mode ultrasound imaging has been used in the diagnosis of several cardiac diseases, particularly, carotid artery diseases like atherosclerosis, known as the ¿hardening of the artery¿, after the accumulation of fatty substances, i.e. lipoproteins, in the artery walls, known as ¿plaques¿. In this work, an anisotropic diffusion filter is used for speckle removal, and morphological operators are employed in the detection of the artery. The obtained information is used in the definition of two initial contours, one for the lumen and another for the bifurcation boundaries, used to initiate a Chan-Vese-based segmentation method.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 2