An automated model for rapid and reliable segmentation of intravascular ultrasound images

Abstract

The detection of lumen and media-adventitia borders in intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) images constitutes a necessary step for accurate morphometric analyses of coronary plaques and accordingly assessment of the atherosclerotic lesion length. Aiming to tackle this issue, an automated model for lumen and media-adventitia border detection is presented, which is based on active contour models. The proposed approach enables extraction of the corresponding boundaries in sequential IVUS frames by applying an iterative procedure, in which initialization of the two contours in each frame is performed automatically, based on the segmentation of its previous frame. The above procedure is implemented through a user-friendly interface, permitting the interaction of the user when needed. The in vivo application and evaluation of our model in sequential IVUS images indicated that the proposed approach is capable of accurately and rapidly segmenting hundreds of IVUS images. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.