176 research outputs found

    Determining candidate polyp morphology from CT colonography using a level-set method

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    In this paper we propose a level-set segmentation for polyp candidates in Computer Tomography Colongraphy (CTC). Correct classification of the candidate polyps into polyp and non-polyp is, in most cases, evaluated using shape features. Therefore, accurate recovery of the polyp candidate surface is important for correct classification. The method presented in this paper, evolves a curvature and gradient dependent boundary to recover the surface of the polyp candidate in a level-set framework. The curvature term is computed using a combination of the Mean curvature and the Gaussian curvature. The results of the algorithm were run through a classifier for two complete data-sets and returned 100% sensitivity for polyps greater than 5mm

    Colon centreline calculation for CT colonography using optimised 3D opological thinning

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    CT colonography is an emerging technique for colorectal cancer screening. This technique facilitates noninvasive imaging of the colon interior by generating virtual reality models of the colon lumen. Manual navigation through these models is a slow and tedious process. It is possible to automate navigation by calculating the centreline of the colon lumen. There are numerous well documented approaches for centreline calculation. Many of these techniques have been developed as alternatives to 3D topological thinning which has been discounted by others due to its computationally intensive nature. This paper describes a fully automated, optimised version of 3D topological thinning that has been specifically developed for calculating the centreline of the human colon

    Fast colon centreline calculation using optimised 3D topological thinning

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    Topological thinning can be used to accurately identify the central path through a computer model of the colon generated using computed tomography colonography. The central path can subsequently be used to simplify the task of navigation within the colon model. Unfortunately standard topological thinning is an extremely inefficient process. We present an optimised version of topological thinning that significantly improves the performance of centreline calculation without compromising the accuracy of the result. This is achieved by using lookup tables to reduce the computational burden associated with the thinning process

    A Robust and Fast System for CTC Computer-Aided Detection of Colorectal Lesions

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    We present a complete, end-to-end computer-aided detection (CAD) system for identifying lesions in the colon, imaged with computed tomography (CT). This system includes facilities for colon segmentation, candidate generation, feature analysis, and classification. The algorithms have been designed to offer robust performance to variation in image data and patient preparation. By utilizing efficient 2D and 3D processing, software optimizations, multi-threading, feature selection, and an optimized cascade classifier, the CAD system quickly determines a set of detection marks. The colon CAD system has been validated on the largest set of data to date, and demonstrates excellent performance, in terms of its high sensitivity, low false positive rate, and computational efficiency

    Multilabel region classification and semantic linking for colon segmentation in CT colonography

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    Accurate and automatic colon segmentation from CT images is a crucial step of many clinical applications in CT colonography, including computer-aided detection (CAD) of colon polyps, 3-D virtual flythrough of the colon, and prone/supine registration. However, the existence of adjacent air-filled organs such as the lung, stomach, and small intestine, and the collapse of the colon due to poor insufflation, render accurate segmentation of the colon a difficult problem. Extra-colonic components can be categorized into two types based on their 3-D connection to the colon: detached and attached extracolonic components (DEC and AEC, respectively). In this paper, we propose graph inference methods to remove extracolonic components to achieve a high quality segmentation. We first decompose each 3-D air-filled object into a set of 3-D regions. A classifier trained with region-level features can be used to identify the colon regions from noncolon regions. After removing obvious DEC, we remove the remaining DEC by modeling the global anatomic structure with an a priori topological constraint and solving a graph inference problem using semantic information provided by a multiclass classifier. Finally, we remove AEC by modeling regions within each 3-D object with a hierarchical conditional random field, solved by graph cut. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms a purely discriminative learning method in detecting true colon regions, while decreasing extra-colonic components in challenging clinical data that includes collapsed cases
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