MRA segmentation using active contour models

US6718054B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignees

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology · US
• The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc. · US
• INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE EN INFORMATIQUE ET EN AUTOMATIQUE (INRIA) · FR

Inventors

• Liana M. Lorigo · Cambridge, US
• W. Eric L. Grimson · Lexington, US
• Olivier Faugeras · Villepreux, FR
• Renaud Keriven · Chaumont, FR
• Carl-Fredrik Westin · Cambridge, US
• Ron Kikinis · Brookline, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 23, 2000
• Grant date: Apr 6, 2004
• Expiry date: Sep 1, 2021

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06T2207/30101
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method and system of providing segmentation of volumetric three-dimensional image data set such as MRA images. Initially, a three-dimensional MRA volume is input. An initial surface S is then generated by thresholding the input. A signed distance function v to S is then generated, where v=v(x,t) and S is the zero level set of v(·,0). The process proceeds by iteratively updating v according to the updating terminates at convergence or as determined by an operator. S′ is then defined to be the zero level set of the current distance function v′ and reinitialize v′ to be a distance function to S′. The volume is continually iteratively updated such that a final distance function v is obtained. The first output obtained from this volume is a segmentation of vessels in the MRA data, obtained by computing the zero level set of v.