A Segmentation Algorithm for Contrast-Enhanced Images

Medical imaging often involves the injection of contrast agents and the subsequent analysis of tissue enhancement patterns. Many important types of tissue have characteristic enhancement patterns; for example, in magnetic resonance (MR) mammography, malignancies exhibit a characteristic "wash out" temporal pattern, while in MR angiography, arteries, veins and parenchyma each have their own distinctive temporal signature. In such image sequences, there are substantial changes in intensities; however, this change is due primarily to the contrast agent rather than the motion of scene elements. As a result, the task of segmenting contrast-enhanced images poses interesting new challenges for computer vision. In this paper, we propose a new image segmentation algorithm for image sequences with contrast enhancement, using a model-based time series analysis of individual pixels.We use energy minimization via graph cuts to efficiently ensure spatial coherence. The energy is minimized...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: ICCV
• Authors: Junhwan Kim, Ramin Zabih
• Keywords: Characteristic Enhancement Patterns, Computer Vision, Distinctive Temporal Signature, ICCV 2003, Image Segmentation Algorithm, MR Angiography Studies, Tissue Enhancement Patterns