Delineation of Carpal Bones From Hand X-Ray Images Through Prior Model, and Integration of Region-Based and Boundary-Based Segmentations

作者：Liyilei Su, Xianjun Fu, Xiaodong Zhang, Xiaoguang Cheng, Yimin Ma, Yungen Gan, Qingmao Hu · 发表于：IEEE Access · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1109/access.2018.2815031 · 被引用次数：25 · 研究领域：Image and Object Detection Techniques、Medical Imaging and Analysis、Digital Imaging for Blood Diseases

Image segmentation is critical and challenging in computer vision and medical image analysis. Despite decades of research, existing segmentation algorithms are still subject to typical segmentation problems, such as over-segmentation, under-segmentation, and non-closed and spurious edges. In this paper, taking the carpal bones from hand X-ray images as the foreground regions, we propose a segmentation approach to integrate segmentations from region-based and boundary-based methods to tackle these typical segmentation problems. First, adaptive local thresholding and adaptive Canny edge detection are explored to extract foreground regions and the edge map. Second, the integration of the edge map and foreground regions by XORing is proposed, to tackle the over-segmentation by adding a background boundary from the edge map near the carpal bone boundary so as to break the connection between the foreground and the over-segmented background, to handle under-segmentation by adding a foreground boundary from the edge map near the carpal bone boundary so as to enclose the missing foreground due to under-segmentation, and to complement non-closed edge and spurious edge from the edge map through the carpal bone regions from the local adaptive thresholding. Optionally, marker-controlled watershed segmentation or an active contourbased method is employed to refine the integrated segmentation. The segmented foreground regions are identified through exploring a prior model. The proposed appr...