Efficient segmentation of 3D fluoroscopic datasets from mobile C-arm

Martin A. Styner; Haydar Talib; Digvijay Singh; Lutz-Peter Nolte

doi:10.1117/12.534778

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12 May 2004 Efficient segmentation of 3D fluoroscopic datasets from mobile C-arm

Martin A. Styner, Haydar Talib, Digvijay Singh, Lutz-Peter Nolte

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Proceedings Volume 5370, Medical Imaging 2004: Image Processing; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.534778
Event: Medical Imaging 2004, 2004, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The emerging mobile fluoroscopic 3D technology linked with a navigation system combines the advantages of CT-based and C-arm-based navigation. The intra-operative, automatic segmentation of 3D fluoroscopy datasets enables the combined visualization of surgical instruments and anatomical structures for enhanced planning, surgical eye-navigation and landmark digitization. We performed a thorough evaluation of several segmentation algorithms using a large set of data from different anatomical regions and man-made phantom objects. The analyzed segmentation methods include automatic thresholding, morphological operations, an adapted region growing method and an implicit 3D geodesic snake method. In regard to computational efficiency, all methods performed within acceptable limits on a standard Desktop PC (30sec-5min). In general, the best results were obtained with datasets from long bones, followed by extremities. The segmentations of spine, pelvis and shoulder datasets were generally of poorer quality. As expected, the threshold-based methods produced the worst results. The combined thresholding and morphological operations methods were considered appropriate for a smaller set of clean images. The region growing method performed generally much better in regard to computational efficiency and segmentation correctness, especially for datasets of joints, and lumbar and cervical spine regions. The less efficient implicit snake method was able to additionally remove wrongly segmented skin tissue regions. This study presents a step towards efficient intra-operative segmentation of 3D fluoroscopy datasets, but there is room for improvement. Next, we plan to study model-based approaches for datasets from the knee and hip joint region, which would be thenceforth applied to all anatomical regions in our continuing development of an ideal segmentation procedure for 3D fluoroscopic images.

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Martin A. Styner, Haydar Talib, Digvijay Singh, and Lutz-Peter Nolte "Efficient segmentation of 3D fluoroscopic datasets from mobile C-arm", Proc. SPIE 5370, Medical Imaging 2004: Image Processing, (12 May 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.534778

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