Interactive Image Segmentation Software based on

Coherent-propagating Level-set Method

Poster No.:

C-0456

Congress:

ECR 2012

Type:

Scientific Exhibit

Authors:

C. Wang , . Smedby ; Linkping/SE, LinkPing/SE

Keywords:

Vascular, Liver, Neuroradiology brain, CT, MR, CT-Angiography,

Computer Applications-3D, Segmentation, Aneurysms

DOI:

10.1594/ecr2012/C-0456

2 1

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Purpose
Segmentation is widely involved in many medical image analysis tasks, such as volume
quantification and surgery planning. In this report, we present a new interactive image
segmentation tool based on the coherent-propagating level set method.

Methods and Materials

The level set method has been used in the research field as a promising segmentation
tool because of its robustness and accuracy. The drawback of this method is
long computation time, which limits its clinical usefulness. We proposed a coherent
propagation algorithm that allows level set functions to converge faster by forcing the
contour to move monotonically according to a predicted developing trend[1]. Repeated
temporary backwards propagation, caused by noise or numerical errors, is then avoided.
It also makes it possible to detect local convergence, so that the parts of the boundary
that have reached their final position can be excluded for subsequent iterations, thus
reducing computation time. Moreover, it enables multi-resolution processing by providing
a simple criterion of convergence at different resolution. Using this algorithm, a crossplatform image segmentation software tool - MiaLite - was developed. An intuitive user
interface was provided to enable the user to define seed regions, prevent propagation
into neighboring organs and adjust key parameters. Fig. 1 shows an example of a liver
segmentation case. As the intensity of liver is so similar to the heart, stomach and
some big vessels, some blocking regions need to be manually put. However in the aorta
and brain segmentation cases, only a single seed region is sufficient. MiaLite is free
available at http://www.cmiv.liu.se/output/software, and supports multiple platforms (Mac,
Windows and Linux).
Images for this section:

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Fig. 1: An example of liver segmentation: the green regions are cross sections of a 3D
seed region, yellow circles are cross sections of 3D blocking regions to stop the growing
of the green region.

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Fig. 2: Liver Segmentation Result of Fig 1. The green masks indicate the segmented
liver area.

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Results
Five brain T1 MRI datasets (256 #256 #175-180), eight abdominal CT
angiography datasets (512 #512 #400-600) and five liver enhancement abdominal
CT(512*512*200-350) were used to test the performance of the new software. Fig. 3
shows some examples. Besides 1-3 min of interaction, the computation time ranges
from 60-80s for brain segmentation, 15 - 25s for aorta segmentation and 30-50s for
liver segmentation (In the liver cases, the multi-resolution method was used). Compared
with another sparse-field level set based software - ITKsnap[2] (which does not support
multi-resolution methods) - the new software was about 7-10 times faster in the brain
segmentation cases, 20-30 times faster in the vessel segmentation cases and 30-50
times faster in the liver segmentation cases. Segmentation accuracy was visually
satisfactory in all cases.
Images for this section:

Fig. 3: More examples of organs segmented with MiaLite.

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Conclusion
MiaLite is a convenient tool for various segmentation tasks. In preliminary experiments,
substantial speed-up was achieved compared with the conventional sparse-field levelset algorithm.

References
1. Wang C, Frimmel H, Smedby O (2011) Level-set based vessel segmentation
accelerated with periodic monotonic speed function. In: Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA,
p 79621M-79621M-7
2. Yushkevich PA, Piven J, Hazlett HC, Smith RG, Ho S, Gee JC, Gerig G (2006) Userguided 3D active contour segmentation of anatomical structures: significantly improved
efficiency and reliability. Neuroimage 31:1116-1128

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