Abstract
Air holes inside the esophagus can be used to localize the esophagus in computed tomographic (CT) images. In this work we present a technique to automatically detect esophageal air holes in this modality. Our technique is based on the extraction of a volume of interest, air segmentation by thresholding and classification of respiratory and esophageal air using a priori knowledge about the connectivity of air voxels. A post-processing step rejects wrong results from artifacts in the CT image. We successfully tested our algorithm with clinical data and compared the detection results of a human expert and our technique.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tsao HM, Wu MH, Higa S, et al. Anatomic relationship of the esophagus and left atrium: Implication for catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation. Chest. 2005;128(4):2581–7.
Pappone C, Oral H, Santinelli V, et al. Atrio-esophageal fistula as a complication of percutaneous transcatheter ablation of atrial fibrillation. Circulation. 2004;109(22):2724–6.
Lauritsch G, Boese J, Wigström L, et al. Towards cardiac C-arm computed tomography. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2006;25(7):922–34.
Rousson M, Bai Y, Xu C, et al. Probabilistic minimal path for automated esophagus segmentation. Proc SPIE. 2006;6144:49–4H.
Huang TC, Zhang G, Guerrero T, et al. Semi-automated CT segmentation using optic flow and Fourier interpolation techniques. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2006;84(2–3):124–34.
Ragan D, Starkschall G, McNutt T, et al. Semiautomated four-dimensional computed tomography segmentation using deformable models. Med Phys. 2005;32(7):2254–61.
Kemerink GJ, Lamers RJS, Pellis BJ, et al. On segmentation of lung parenchyma in quantitative computed tomography of the lung. Med Phys. 1998;25(12):2432–9.
Handels H. Medizinische Bildverarbeitung. Stuttgart: Teubner; 2000.
Kalender WA. Computed Tomography. 2nd ed. Erlangen: Publicis Corporate Publishing; 2005.
Ibanez L, Schroeder W, Ng L, et al. The ITK Software Guide. 2nd ed. Kitware Inc.; 2005.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Fieselmann, A., Lautenschläger, S., Deinzer, F., Poppe, B. (2008). Automatic Detection of Air Holes Inside the Esophagus in CT Images. In: Tolxdorff, T., Braun, J., Deserno, T.M., Horsch, A., Handels, H., Meinzer, HP. (eds) Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2008. Informatik aktuell. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78640-5_80
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78640-5_80
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-78639-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-78640-5
eBook Packages: Computer Science and Engineering (German Language)