A whole body atlas for segmentation and delineation of organs for radiation therapy planning

• Published in: Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment, 2001, Vol.471 (1), p.160-164
• Main Authors: Qatarneh, S.M., Crafoord, J., Kramer, E.L., Maguire, G.Q., Brahme, A., Noz, M.E., Hyödynmaa, S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Active contour model; algorithm; Image warping; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Radiation therapy planning; radiotherapy; Segmentation; SRA - ICT; SRA - Informations- och kommunikationsteknik; Whole body atlas
• ISSN: 0168-9002; 1872-9576; 1872-9576
• DOI: 10.1016/S0168-9002(01)00984-6

A semi-automatic procedure for delineation of organs to be used as the basis of a whole body atlas database for radiation therapy planning was developed. The Visible Human Male Computed Tomography (CT)-data set was used as a “standard man” reference. The organ of interest was outlined manually and then transformed by a polynomial warping algorithm onto a clinical patient CT. This provided an initial contour, which was then adjusted and refined by the semi-automatic active contour model to find the final organ outline. The liver was used as a test organ for evaluating the performance of the procedure. Liver outlines obtained by the segmentation algorithm on six patients were compared to those manually drawn by a radiologist. The combination of warping and semi-automatic active contour model generally provided satisfactory segmentation results, but the procedure has to be extended to three dimensions.