Abstract
In clinics an accurate vessel segmentation method is important to quantize the vessel volume change with respect to time for artery elasticity measurement. This study proposes a modified version on 3D–expanded dynamic programming to find an optimal surface in a 3D matrix. The aim of this study is to discover the robustness against noises in measuring the cross-sectional area of the femoral artery on MRI datasets of ultra-endurance runners as accurately as possible. To do this, we use phantom images with different added noises and different image contrasts to find out the optimal parameters using grid search. The contrast between the vessel lumen and its background in phantom study is changed to simulate the real MRI dataset. We also add a plaque in phantom images to test the accuracy of the proposed algorithm in dealing pathologic cases. The phantom studies and grid search on selecting optimal parameters can offer an alternative way on parameter selection. In application to MRI, the accuracy is performed via comparisons between the manual tracings of experts and automated results. The mean relative error is 2.1 % ± 2.1 % on testing 11 MRI datasets (total 550 images). The phantom studies and grid search on selecting optimal parameters can offer an alternative way on parameter selection.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Science Council with the grant number MOST 104-2221-E-039-002, Taiwan. The authors acknowledge Dr. Uwe Schütz (University Hospital of Ulm, Germany) for providing real MRI sequences and their manual tracings to be the gold standard.
Author Contributions
Cheng DC designed the algorithm and the experiments, writing of the paper; Wu JF wrote the program code; Liu SH and CH Su examined the experiments; and Gao YH made the statistics and gave suggestions in manuscript writing.
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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Systems-Level Quality Improvement
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Cheng, DC., Wu, JF., Kao, YH. et al. Accurate Measurement of Cross-Sectional Area of Femoral Artery on MRI Sequences of Transcontinental Ultramarathon Runners Using Optimal Parameters Selection. J Med Syst 40, 260 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-016-0626-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-016-0626-y