Edge intensity normalization as a bias field correction during balloon snake segmentation of breast MRI

Author

Hill, Andrew ; Mehnert, Andrew ; Crozier, Stuart

Author_Institution

School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

fYear

2008

fDate

20-25 Aug. 2008

Firstpage

3040

Lastpage

3043

Abstract

Segmentation of fat suppressed dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) image data can pose significant problems because of the inherently poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and intensity variations due to the bias field. Segmentation methods such as balloon snakes, while able to operate in a poor SNR environment, are sensitive to variations in edge intensity, which are regularly encountered within DCE-MRI due to the bias field. In order to overcome the effects of the bias field, an intensity normalization based on the strength of the strongest edge, i.e. the skin-air-boundary, is proposed and evaluated. This normalization allows balloon segmentations to be run three times faster while maintaining, or even improving accuracy.

Keywords

Active contours; Breast tissue; Deformable models; Image segmentation; Magnetic resonance imaging; Mammography; Signal to noise ratio; Surface morphology; Ultrasonic imaging; X-ray imaging; Air; Algorithms; Automatic Data Processing; Breast; Breast Neoplasms; Female; Humans; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Mammography; Observer Variation; Reproducibility of Results; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Skin; Subtraction Technique;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2008. EMBS 2008. 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Vancouver, BC

ISSN

1557-170X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1814-5

Electronic_ISBN

1557-170X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2008.4649844

Filename

4649844