Active Contour for the Detection of Coronary Artery in Ultrasonography
Shogo Hiramatsu, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Seminar • 16 December 2013 • BM 4.233

Abstract
Our goal was to obtain 3D model of coronary artery from ultrasonography in order to assist heart surgery. Even though ultrasonography is useful because of non-invasiveness and realtimeness, the modality has poor resolution and significant noise. Based on those points, we developed the system which enables us to segment coronary artery from the noisy image and to make 3D model of that. This research realized the system as ImageJ plugin written in Java. The system utilized active contour as segmentation algorithm. Spline was applied to the active contour’s body. The active contour was implemented to evolve so that penalty function would be minimized. The penalty consisted of gradient penalty, statistical penalty and constraint penalty. The energies was computed efficiently using pre-integrated images and Green’s theorem. The active contour was able to avoid self-intersection in order not to violate the Green’s theorem. The Self-intersection check was implemented with sweep line algorithm. The system applies the segmentation algorithm to the sequent images of ultrasonography movie and creates 3D model by volume rendering. The ultrasonography movie which was used for validation consisted of 120 frames. Movie segmentation experiments were held 10 times and all of them was succeeded without sticking out. This research is supposed to contribute to practical use of the active contour.