Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications (한국정보과학회논문지:소프트웨어및응용)

Korean Institute of Information Scientists and Engineers (한국정보과학회)
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Automatic Segmentation of Pulmonary Structures using Gray-level Information of Chest CT Images

흉부 CT 영상의 밝기값 정보를 사용한 폐구조물 자동 분할

  • 임예니 (서울대학교 컴퓨터학부) ;
  • 홍헬렌 (서울여자대학교 미디어학부)
  • Published : 2006.11.15
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Abstract

We propose an automatic segmentation method for identifying pulmonary structures using gray-level information of chest CT images. Our method consists of following five steps. First, to segment pulmonary structures based on the difference of gray-level value, we select the threshold using optimal thresholding. Second, we separate the thorax from the background air and then the lungs and airways from the thorax by applying the inverse operation of 2D region growing in chest CT images. To eliminate non-pulmonary structures which has similar intensities with the lungs, we use 3D connected component labeling. Third, we segment the trachea and left and right mainstem bronchi using 3D branch-based region growing in chest CT images. Fourth, we can obtain accurate lung boundaries by subtracting the result of third step from the result of second step. Finally, we select the threshold in accordance with histogram analysis and then segment radio-dense pulmonary vessels by applying gray-level thresholding to the result of the second step. To evaluate the accuracy of proposed method, we make a visual inspection of segmentation result of lungs, airways and pulmonary vessels. We compare the result of the conventional region growing with the result of proposed 3D branch-based region growing. Experimental results show that our proposed method extracts lung boundaries, airways, and pulmonary vessels automatically and accurately.

본 논문에서는 흉부 CT 영상의 밝기값 정보를 사용하여 폐 구조물을 자동 분할하기 위한 방법을 제안한다. 본 제안방법은 다음과 같은 다섯 단계로 구성된다. 첫 번째, 영상의 밝기값 차이를 이용하여 폐 구조물을 분할하기 위해 최적 임계값 기법을 사용하여 임계값을 계산한다. 두 번째, 흉부 CT 영상에 2차원 영역성장법의 역 연산을 사용하여 배경으로부터 흉부를, 흉부로부터 기관지 및 폐를 단계적으로 분할한다. 이 때, 밝기값이 비슷한 다른 영역들을 3차원 연결화소군 레이블링을 통해 제거한다. 세 번째, 흉부 CT 영상에 3차원 분기 기반 영역성장법을 적용하여 기관과 좌우 기관지를 분할한다. 네 번째, 기관지 및 폐에서 기관지를 영상 감산함으로써 정확한 폐 영역을 얻는다. 마지막으로, 히스토그램 분석을 통해 임계값을 계산하고 기관지 및 폐에 밝기값 기반 임계값 기법을 적용하여 폐혈관을 분할한다. 제안방법의 정확성을 검증하기 위해 폐, 기관지, 폐혈관의 분할 결과에 대해 육안평가를 수행한다. 제안한 3차원 분기 기반 영역성장법을 통한 기관지 분할 결과를 평가하기 위해 기존 영역성장법으로 분할한 결과와 비교한다. 실험 결과는 제안 분할 방법이 폐, 기관지, 폐혈관을 자동으로 정확하게 추출함을 보여준다.

Keywords

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