2006 Articles

Variational segmentation framework in prolate spheroidal coordinates for 3D real-time echocardiography

Vallet, Bruno; Angelini, Elsa D.; Laine, Andrew F.

This paper presents a new formulation of a deformable model segmentation in prolate spheroidal coordinates for segmentation of 3D cardiac echocardiography data. The prolate spheroidal coordinate system enables a representation of the segmented surface with descriptors specifically adapted to the "ellipsoidal" shape of the ventricle. A simple data energy term, based on gray-level information, guides the segmentation. The segmentation framework provides a very fast and simple algorithm to evolve an initial ellipsoidal object towards the endocardial surface of the myocardium with near real-time deformations. With near real-time performance, additional constraints on landmark points, can be used interactively to prevent leakage of the surface.