Computer-based determination of the newborn’s femoral head coverage using three-dimensional ultrasound scans

Abstract

An automatic image analysis method is presented, which finds the diagnostic landmarks for the determination of the femoral head coverage according to Grafs method in a 3-D ultrasound image volume. Some of the process steps depend on tuneable parameters. It is a typical experience that the quality of images differs between investigators and patients respectively. An image analysis algorithm therefore should produce results which are robust against such varying image quality. The sensitivity of intermediary and final image analysis process steps versus expert defined parameters is investigated. This analysis are performed in a pilot study on 3-D image data of 10 newborns.