Segmenting cardiac MRI tagging lines using Gabor filter banks

This paper describes a new method for the automated segmentation and extraction of cardiac MRI tagging lines. Our method is based on the novel use of a 2D Gabor filter bank. By convolving the tagged input image with our Gabor filters, the tagging lines are automatically enhanced and segmented out. We design the Gabor filter bank based on the input image´s spatial and frequency characteristics. The final result is a combination of each filter´s response in the Gabor filter bank. We demonstrate that compared to bandpass filter methods such as HARP, this method results in robust and accurate segmentation of the tagging lines.