Segmentation and Visualization of Intervertebral Discs

Preliminary Presentation

Eyal Bar-KochbaENGN2500: Medical Imaging

April 12th, 2011

The Roadmap To Intervertebral Disc Segmentation

Deadline GoalsFirst

Presentation• Gather data from literature and class MR data.• Begin developing the algorithm for 2D segmentation of intervertebral discs.

Mid Presentation

• Continue working on the algorithm for 2D segmentation of intervertebral discs. • Obtain oblique MRI images from Doug.

Final Presentation

• Finalize the 2D segmentation algorithm and compare it to hand drawn segmentations.• Construct a 3D isosurface by stacking the 2D segmentations and compare to V3D software.

A Primer On Intervertebral Discs

Anatomy of the Spine

T2-weighted MR sagittal image

● Normal Disc

● Degenerated intervertebral disc with disc herniation

Why Segmentation Is Not So Simple.

Zoomed T2-weighted MR sagittal image

Segmentation issues: ♦ Gray-level overlapping of the nucleus

pulposus and vertebrae with gray-level overlapping.

● Gray-level overlapping of the annulus fibrosus, anterior longitudinal ligament, and vascular tissue.

▲ Blurring due to the partial volume effect.

Segmentation Using Atlas-FCM

Segmentation method proposed by S.K. Michopoulou, et al. (2008)

Segmentation Using Atlas-FCM

Segmentation examples using Atlas-FCM [S.K. Michopoulou, et al. (2008)]

3D Reconstruction of Segmented Images

• Assign unique values to images outside of boundary.

• Import data into tecplot and plot isosurface.

• Compare data with segmentation produced by V3D.

Samples of V3D Visualization [H. Peng, et al. (2011)]