Impact of Keypoint Detection on Graph-Based Characterization of Blood Vessels in Colonoscopy Videos

摘要

We explore the potential of the use of blood vessels as anatomical landmarks for developing image registration methods in colonoscopy images. An unequivocal representation of blood vessels could be used to guide follow-up methods to track lesions over different interventions. We propose a graph-based representation to characterize network structures, such as blood vessels, based on the use of intersections and endpoints. We present a study consisting of the assessment of the minimal performance a keypoint detector should achieve so that the structure can still be recognized. Experimental results prove that, even by achieving a loss of 25 % of the keypoints, the descriptive power of the associated graphs to the vessel pattern is still high enough to recognize blood vessels.