Epicardial contour segmentation by using level set with prior shape and region

A segmentation model is proposed for the epicardial contour of the cardiac MRI image based on level set with prior shape and region. Considering the shape correlation of the left ventricle (LV) in the cardiac image sequences, the segmentation result of the current frame is referred as the prior shape of the next frame and the contraction and diastolic change area of LV is exploited as the prior region. The initial evolving curve is automatically located by calculating the posterior probability of the pixel belonging to the chamber of LV. The prior shape and region prevent the evolving curve from leaking off the outer contour and pull it to the accurate edges. Promising experimental results are obtained on the real cardiac sequences.