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Lian Z, Lu Q, Lin B, Chen L, Peng P, Feng Y. MRI Deep Learning-Based Automatic Segmentation of Interventricular Septum for Black-Blood Myocardial T2* Measurement in Thalassemia. J Magn Reson Imaging 2023. [PMID: 37941460 DOI: 10.1002/jmri.29113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The T2* value of interventricular septum is routinely reported for grading myocardial iron load in thalassemia major, and automatic segmentation of septum could shorten analysis time and reduce interobserver variability. PURPOSE To develop a deep learning-based method for automatic septum segmentation from black-blood MR images for the myocardial T2* measurement of thalassemia patients. STUDY TYPE Retrospective. POPULATION/SUBJECTS One hundred forty-six transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients with cardiac MR examinations from two centers. Data from Center 1 (1.5 T) were assigned to the training (100 examinations) and internal testing (20 examinations) sets; data from Center 2 were assigned to the external testing set (26 examinations; 10 at 1.5 T and 16 at 3.0 T). FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE 1.5 T and 3.0 T, multiecho gradient-echo sequence. ASSESSMENT A modified attention U-Net for septum segmentation was constructed and trained, and its performance evaluated on unseen internal and external datasets. T2* was measured by fitting the average septum signal, separately segmented by automatic and manual methods. STATISTICAL TESTS Agreement between manual and automatic septum segmentations was assessed with the Dice coefficient, and T2* agreement was assessed using the Bland-Altman plot and the coefficient of variation (CoV). RESULTS The median Dice coefficient of deep network-based septum segmentation was 0.90 [0.05] on the internal dataset, 0.82 [0.10] on the external 1.5 T dataset, and 0.86 [0.14] on the external 3.0 T dataset. T2* measurements using automatic segmentation corresponded with those from manual segmentation, with a mean difference of 0.02 (95% LoA: -0.74 to 0.79) msec, 0.43 (95% LoA: -2.1 to 3.0) msec, and 0.36 (95% LoA: -0.72 to 1.4) msec on the three datasets. The CoVs between the two methods were 3.1%, 7.0%, and 6.1% on the internal and two external datasets, respectively. DATA CONCLUSIONS The proposed septum segmentation yielded myocardial T2* measurements which were highly consistent with those obtained by manual segmentation. This automatic approach may facilitate data processing and avoid operator-dependent variability in practice. EVIDENCE LEVEL 4 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zifeng Lian
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing & Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Medical Imaging and Diagnostic Technology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence & Key Laboratory of Mental Health of the Ministry of Education, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Qiqi Lu
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing & Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Medical Imaging and Diagnostic Technology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence & Key Laboratory of Mental Health of the Ministry of Education, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Bingquan Lin
- Department of Medical Imaging Center, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Lingjian Chen
- Department of Equipment, Shunde Hospital, Southern Medical University (The First People's Hospital of Shunde, Foshan), Foshan, China
| | - Peng Peng
- Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China
- NHC Key Laboratory of Thalassemia Medicine and Guangxi Key Laboratory of Thalassemia Research, Nanning, China
| | - Yanqiu Feng
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing & Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Medical Imaging and Diagnostic Technology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence & Key Laboratory of Mental Health of the Ministry of Education, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
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Topriceanu CC, Pierce I, Moon JC, Captur G. T 2 and T 2⁎ mapping and weighted imaging in cardiac MRI. Magn Reson Imaging 2022; 93:15-32. [PMID: 35914654 DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2022.07.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Revised: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Cardiac imaging is progressing from simple imaging of heart structure and function to techniques visualizing and measuring underlying tissue biological changes that can potentially define disease and therapeutic options. These techniques exploit underlying tissue magnetic relaxation times: T1, T2 and T2*. Initial weighting methods showed myocardial heterogeneity, detecting regional disease. Current methods are now fully quantitative generating intuitive color maps that do not only expose regionality, but also diffuse changes - meaning that between-scan comparisons can be made to define disease (compared to normal) and to monitor interval change (compared to old scans). T1 is now familiar and used clinically in multiple scenarios, yet some technical challenges remain. T2 is elevated with increased tissue water - oedema. Should there also be blood troponin elevation, this oedema likely reflects inflammation, a key biological process. T2* falls in the presence of magnetic/paramagnetic materials - practically, this means it measures tissue iron, either after myocardial hemorrhage or in myocardial iron overload. This review discusses how T2 and T2⁎ imaging work (underlying physics, innovations, dependencies, performance), current and emerging use cases, quality assurance processes for global delivery and future research directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Constantin-Cristian Topriceanu
- Cardiac MRI Unit, Barts Heart Centre, West Smithfield, London, UK; UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, London, UK; UCL MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK
| | - Iain Pierce
- Cardiac MRI Unit, Barts Heart Centre, West Smithfield, London, UK; UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, London, UK
| | - James C Moon
- Cardiac MRI Unit, Barts Heart Centre, West Smithfield, London, UK; UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, London, UK
| | - Gabriella Captur
- Cardiac MRI Unit, Barts Heart Centre, West Smithfield, London, UK; UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, London, UK; UCL MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, University College London, London, UK; The Royal Free Hospital, Centre for Inherited Heart Muscle Conditions, Cardiology Department, Pond Street, Hampstead, London, UK.
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3
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Triadyaksa P, Oudkerk M, Sijens PE. Cardiac T 2 * mapping: Techniques and clinical applications. J Magn Reson Imaging 2019; 52:1340-1351. [PMID: 31837078 PMCID: PMC7687175 DOI: 10.1002/jmri.27023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2019] [Accepted: 11/25/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Cardiac T2* mapping is a noninvasive MRI method that is used to identify myocardial iron accumulation in several iron storage diseases such as hereditary hemochromatosis, sickle cell disease, and β‐thalassemia major. The method has improved over the years in terms of MR acquisition, focus on relative artifact‐free myocardium regions, and T2* quantification. Several improvement factors involved include blood pool signal suppression, the reproducibility of T2* measurement as affected by scanner hardware, and acquisition software. Regarding the T2* quantification, improvement factors include the applied curve‐fitting method with or without truncation of the signals acquired at longer echo times and whether or not T2* measurement focuses on multiple segmental regions or the midventricular septum only. Although already widely applied in clinical practice, data processing still differs between centers, contributing to measurement outcome variations. State of the art T2* measurement involves pixelwise quantification providing better spatial iron loading information than region of interest‐based quantification. Improvements have been proposed, such as on MR acquisition for free‐breathing mapping, the generation of fast mapping, noise reduction, automatic myocardial contour delineation, and different T2* quantification methods. This review deals with the pro and cons of different methods used to quantify T2* and generate T2* maps. The purpose is to recommend a combination of MR acquisition and T2* mapping quantification techniques for reliable outcomes in measuring and follow‐up of myocardial iron overload. The clinical application of cardiac T2* mapping for iron overload's early detection, monitoring, and treatment is addressed. The prospects of T2* mapping combined with different MR acquisition methods, such as cardiac T1 mapping, are also described. Level of Evidence: 4 Technical Efficacy Stage: 5 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pandji Triadyaksa
- University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Universitas Diponegoro, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Semarang, Indonesia
| | - Matthijs Oudkerk
- University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Institute for Diagnostic Accuracy, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Paul E Sijens
- University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.,University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Radiology, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Zheng Q, Xu L, Xiong L, Cui X, Nan J, He T. Coil combination using linear deconvolution in k-space for phase imaging. Quant Imaging Med Surg 2019; 9:1792-1803. [PMID: 31867233 DOI: 10.21037/qims.2019.10.08] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Background The combination of multi-channel data is a critical step for the imaging of phase and susceptibility contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Magnitude-weighted phase combination methods often produce noise and aliasing artifacts in the magnitude images at accelerated imaging sceneries. To address this issue, an optimal coil combination method through deconvolution in k-space is proposed in this paper. Methods The proposed method firstly employs the sum-of-squares and phase aligning method to yield a complex reference coil image which is then used to calculate the coil sensitivity and its Fourier transform. Then, the coil k-space combining weights is computed, taking into account the truncated frequency data of coil sensitivity and the acquired k-space data. Finally, combining the coil k-space data with the acquired weights generates the k-space data of proton distribution, with which both phase and magnitude information can be obtained straightforwardly. Both phantom and in vivo imaging experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Results Compared with magnitude-weighted method and MCPC-C, the proposed method can alleviate the phase cancellation in coil combination, resulting in a less wrapped phase. Conclusions The proposed method provides an effective and efficient approach to combine multiple coil image in parallel MRI reconstruction, and has potential to benefit routine clinical practice in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Zheng
- Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450002, China
| | - Lin Xu
- Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China
| | - Liang Xiong
- Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China
| | - Xiao Cui
- Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450002, China
| | - Jiaofen Nan
- Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450002, China
| | - Taigang He
- Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.,St George's, University of London, London SW17 0RE, UK
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Triadyaksa P, Prakken NHJ, Overbosch J, Peters RB, van Swieten JM, Oudkerk M, Sijens PE. Semi-automated myocardial segmentation of bright blood multi-gradient echo images improves reproducibility of myocardial contours and T2* determination. MAGNETIC RESONANCE MATERIALS IN PHYSICS BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 2016; 30:239-254. [PMID: 27981396 PMCID: PMC5440499 DOI: 10.1007/s10334-016-0601-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2016] [Revised: 11/23/2016] [Accepted: 11/24/2016] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Objectives Early detection of iron loading is affected by the reproducibility of myocardial contour assessment. A novel semi-automatic myocardial segmentation method is presented on contrast-optimized composite images and compared to the results of manual drawing. Materials and methods Fifty-one short-axis slices at basal, mid-ventricular and apical locations from 17 patients were acquired by bright blood multi-gradient echo MRI. Four observers produced semi-automatic and manual myocardial contours on contrast-optimized composite images. The semi-automatic segmentation method relies on vector field convolution active contours to generate the endocardial contour. After creating radial pixel clusters on the myocardial wall, a combination of pixel-wise coefficient of variance (CoV) assessment and k-means clustering establishes the epicardial contour for each segment. Results Compared to manual drawing, semi-automatic myocardial segmentation lowers the variability of T2* quantification within and between observers (CoV of 12.05 vs. 13.86% and 14.43 vs. 16.01%) by improving contour reproducibility (P < 0.001). In the presence of iron loading, semi-automatic segmentation also lowers the T2* variability within and between observers (CoV of 13.14 vs. 15.19% and 15.91 vs. 17.28%). Conclusion Application of semi-automatic myocardial segmentation on contrast-optimized composite images improves the reproducibility of T2* quantification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pandji Triadyaksa
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands. .,Department of Physics, Diponegoro University, Sudharto Street, Semarang, 50275, Indonesia.
| | - Niek H J Prakken
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Radiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Jelle Overbosch
- Department of Radiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Robin B Peters
- Department of Radiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - J Martijn van Swieten
- Department of Radiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Matthijs Oudkerk
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Paul E Sijens
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Radiology, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, EB45, 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Wantanajittikul K, Theera-Umpon N, Saekho S, Auephanwiriyakul S, Phrommintikul A, Leemasawat K. Automatic cardiac T2* relaxation time estimation from magnetic resonance images using region growing method with automatically initialized seed points. COMPUTER METHODS AND PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE 2016; 130:76-86. [PMID: 27208523 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2016.03.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2015] [Revised: 03/10/2016] [Accepted: 03/11/2016] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Heart failure due to iron-overload cardiomyopathy is one of the main causes of mortality. The cardiomyopathy is reversible if intensive iron chelation treatment is done in time, but the diagnosis is often delayed because the cardiac iron deposition is unpredictable and the symptoms are lately detected. There are many ways to assess iron-overload. However, the widely used and approved method is by using MRI which is performed by calculating the T2* (T2-star). In order to compute the T2* value, the region of interest (ROI) is manually selected by an expert which may require considerable time and skills. The aim of this work is hence to develop the cardiac T2* measurement by using region growing algorithm for automatically segmenting the ROI in cardiac MR images. Mathematical morphologies are also used to reduce some errors. METHODS Thirty MR images with free-breathing and respiratory-trigger technique were used in this work. The segmentation algorithm yields good results when compared with the manual segmentation performed by two experts. RESULTS The averages of positive predictive value, the sensitivity, the Hausdorff distance, and the Dice similarity coefficient are 0.76, 0.84, 7.78 pixels, and 0.80 when compared with the two experts' opinions. The T2* values were carried out based on the automatically segmented ROI's. The mean difference of T2* values between the proposed technique and the experts' opinion is about 1.40ms. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method in T2* value estimation. Some previous methods were implemented for comparisons. The results show that the proposed method yields better segmentation and T2* value estimation performances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kittichai Wantanajittikul
- Biomedical Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Biomedical Engineering Center, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
| | - Nipon Theera-Umpon
- Biomedical Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Biomedical Engineering Center, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
| | - Suwit Saekho
- Biomedical Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Biomedical Engineering Center, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Department of Radiologic Technology, Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
| | - Sansanee Auephanwiriyakul
- Biomedical Engineering Program, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Biomedical Engineering Center, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand; Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
| | - Arintaya Phrommintikul
- Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
| | - Krit Leemasawat
- Northern Cardiac Center, Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand
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Triadyaksa P, Handayani A, Dijkstra H, Aryanto KYE, Pelgrim GJ, Xie X, Willems TP, Prakken NHJ, Oudkerk M, Sijens PE. Contrast-optimized composite image derived from multigradient echo cardiac magnetic resonance imaging improves reproducibility of myocardial contours and T2* measurement. MAGNETIC RESONANCE MATERIALS IN PHYSICS BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 2015; 29:17-27. [PMID: 26530323 PMCID: PMC4751173 DOI: 10.1007/s10334-015-0503-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2015] [Revised: 10/06/2015] [Accepted: 10/07/2015] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Objectives Reproducibility of myocardial contour determination in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is important, especially when determining T2* values per myocardial segment as a prognostic factor of heart failure or thalassemia. A method creating a composite image with contrasts optimized for drawing myocardial contours is introduced and compared with the standard method on a single image. Materials and methods A total of 36 short-axis slices from bright-blood multigradient echo (MGE) T2* scans of 21 patients were acquired at eight echo times. Four observers drew free-hand myocardial contours on one manually selected T2* image (method 1) and on one image composed by blending three images acquired at TEs providing optimum contrast-to-noise ratio between the myocardium and its surrounding regions (method 2). Results Myocardial contouring by method 2 met higher interobserver reproducibility than method 1 (P < 0.001) with smaller Coefficient of variance (CoV) of T2* values in the presence of myocardial iron accumulation (9.79 vs. 15.91 %) and in both global myocardial and mid-ventricular septum regions (12.29 vs. 16.88 and 5.76 vs. 8.16 %, respectively). Conclusion The use of contrast-optimized composite images in MGE data analysis improves reproducibility of myocardial contour determination, leading to increased consistency in the calculated T2* values enhancing the diagnostic impact of this measure of iron overload.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pandji Triadyaksa
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands. .,Department of Physics, Diponegoro University, Prof. Soedarto street, Semarang, 50275, Indonesia.
| | - Astri Handayani
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Hildebrand Dijkstra
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Radiology, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Kadek Y E Aryanto
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Gert Jan Pelgrim
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Xueqian Xie
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Tineke P Willems
- Department of Radiology, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Niek H J Prakken
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Radiology, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Matthijs Oudkerk
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Paul E Sijens
- Center for Medical Imaging-North East Netherlands, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Radiology, EB45, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30001, 9700 RB, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Zheng Q, Lu Z, Zhang M, Xu L, Ma H, Song S, Feng Q, Feng Y, Chen W, He T. Automatic segmentation of myocardium from black-blood MR images using entropy and local neighborhood information. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0120018. [PMID: 25811976 PMCID: PMC4374880 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2014] [Accepted: 01/26/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
By using entropy and local neighborhood information, we present in this study a robust adaptive Gaussian regularizing Chan-Vese (CV) model to segment the myocardium from magnetic resonance images with intensity inhomogeneity. By utilizing the circular Hough transformation (CHT) our model is able to detect epicardial and endocardial contours of the left ventricle (LV) as circles automatically, and the circles are used as the initialization. In the cost functional of our model, the interior and exterior energies are weighted by the entropy to improve the robustness of the evolving curve. Local neighborhood information is used to evolve the level set function to reduce the impact of the heterogeneity inside the regions and to improve the segmentation accuracy. An adaptive window is utilized to reduce the sensitivity to initialization. The Gaussian kernel is used to regularize the level set function, which can not only ensure the smoothness and stability of the level set function, but also eliminate the traditional Euclidean length term and re-initialization. Extensive validation of the proposed method on patient data demonstrates its superior performance over other state-of-the-art methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Zheng
- Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450002, China
| | - Zhentai Lu
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Minghui Zhang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Lin Xu
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
| | - Huan Ma
- Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450002, China
| | - Shengli Song
- Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450002, China
| | - Qianjin Feng
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Yanqiu Feng
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Wufan Chen
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China
| | - Taigang He
- Cardiovascular Sciences Research Centre, St George’s, University of London, London SW17 0RE, United Kingdom
- Biomedical Research Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital and Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
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