A modified gradient correlation filter for image segmentation: application to airway and bowel

Med Phys. 2009 Feb;36(2):480-5. doi: 10.1118/1.3056461.

Abstract

The segmentation of structures of interest from medical images may incorrectly include adjacent structures in the segmented image (i.e., false positives). This study introduces a family of gradient correlation filters that reduce false positives in the segmented image by comparing the segmented region gradients with a user-defined model. A gradient correlation filter was applied to a database of clinical computed tomography scans for the task of differentiating airway from lung regions and bowel from lung regions. The results were evaluated using receiver-operating characteristic analysis and demonstrated excellent results for both the airway/lung and bowel/lung classification tasks.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Diagnostic Imaging / methods*
  • False Positive Reactions
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Intestines*
  • Lung*
  • Male
  • ROC Curve
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed