An automatic algorithm for rapid and accurate extraction of the human ventricular system from T2-weighted MR images

摘要

Our previous work to segment the complete ventricular system from T1-weighted and SPGR MR images is extended here to deal with T2-weighted MR images. For each ventricle, a region of interest is determined first and its local statistics is calculated to find the intensity ranges of cerebrospinal fluid, grey matter and white matter. Then, region growing is performed in each ventricle based on the calculated statistics. During region growing, anti-leakage conditions are checked to prevent growing into extraventricular spaces. With the incorporation of domain knowledge, radiological properties and geometrical constraints, the algorithm provides a means for the extraction of the ventricular system from T2-weighted MR images. Initial experimental results are presented with the extracted third and fourth ventricles.