System and method for automatic segmentation of vessels in breast MR sequences

摘要

A method for segmenting digitized images includes providing a digitized image, selecting a point with a median enhancement greater than a predefined threshold, wherein a contrast enhancing agent was applied to the subject matter of said digitized image prior to acquisition of said image, defining a shape matrix for the selected point in said image from moments of the intensities in a window of points about said selected point, calculating eigenvalues of said shape matrix, determining an eccentricity of a structure underlying said point from said eigenvalues, and segmenting said image based on said eccentricity values, wherein the steps of defining a shape matrix, calculating eigenvalues of said shape matrix, and determining the eccentricity of the underlying structure are repeated for all points in said image.