Title
Probabilistic refinement of model-based segmentation: application to radiation therapy planning of the head and neck
Abstract
Radiation therapy planning requires accurate delineation of target volumes and organs at risk. Traditional manual delineation is tedious, and can require hours of clinician's time. The majority of the published automated methods belong to model-based, atlas-based or hybrid segmentation approaches. One substantial limitation of model-based segmentation is that its accuracy may be restricted either by the uncertainties in image content or by the intrinsic properties of the model itself, such as prior shape constraints. In this paper, we propose a novel approach aimed at probabilistic refinement of segmentations obtained using 3D deformable models. The method is applied as the last step of a fully automated segmentation framework consisting of automatic initialization of the models in the patient image and their adaptation to the anatomical structures of interest. Performance of the method is compared to the conventional model-based scheme by segmentation of three important organs at risk in the head and neck region: mandible, brainstem, and parotid glands. The resulting segmentations are validated by comparing them to manual expert delineations. We demonstrate that the proposed refinement method leads to a significant improvement of segmentation accuracy, resulting in up to 13% overlap increase.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1007/978-3-642-15699-1_42
MIAR
Keywords
Field
DocType
conventional model-based scheme,segmentation accuracy,accurate delineation,proposed refinement method,hybrid segmentation approach,image content,automated method,model-based segmentation,manual expert delineation,radiation therapy planning,automated segmentation framework,probabilistic refinement,radiation therapy
Computer vision,Scale-space segmentation,Segmentation,Computer science,Radiation treatment planning,Image content,Artificial intelligence,Anatomical structures,Probabilistic logic,Initialization
Conference
Volume
ISSN
ISBN
6326
0302-9743
3-642-15698-3
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
5
0.50
8
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Arish A. Qazi1101.95
John J. Kim2163.13
David Jaffray3466.64
Vladimir Pekar426124.85