An interactive medical image segmentation framework using iterative refinement

Comput Biol Med. 2017 Apr 1:83:22-33. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2017.02.002. Epub 2017 Feb 13.

Abstract

Segmentation is often performed on medical images for identifying diseases in clinical evaluation. Hence it has become one of the major research areas. Conventional image segmentation techniques are unable to provide satisfactory segmentation results for medical images as they contain irregularities. They need to be pre-processed before segmentation. In order to obtain the most suitable method for medical image segmentation, we propose MIST (Medical Image Segmentation Tool), a two stage algorithm. The first stage automatically generates a binary marker image of the region of interest using mathematical morphology. This marker serves as the mask image for the second stage which uses GrabCut to yield an efficient segmented result. The obtained result can be further refined by user interaction, which can be done using the proposed Graphical User Interface (GUI). Experimental results show that the proposed method is accurate and provides satisfactory segmentation results with minimum user interaction on medical as well as natural images.

Keywords: Interactive; MRI; Medical image; Morphology; Segmentation; X-ray.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Humans
  • Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Machine Learning*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Systems Integration
  • User-Computer Interface*