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Magnetic Resonance Angiogram Processing and Modelling of the Cerebral Vascular Network

Authors:
Krzysztof Psiuk-Maksymowicz
Jaroslaw Smieja
Damian Borys

Keywords: Medical image processing; image segmentation; MRI angiography; cerebral vasculature

Abstract:
The main aim of the work is to develop an algorithm for creation of three-dimensional model of the cerebral vascular network on the basis of medical images. Two types of non-contrast enhanced magnetic resonance angiograms were used as input data. First of them, Time of Flight angiography, enabled visualization of the arterial tree, whereas the next one, Phase Contrast angiography, enabled visualization of both arterial and venous trees. Medical images stored in Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) file format required pre-processing. This process included resizing of the images, segmentation of the brain area and morphological white top-hat transformation in case of Time of Flight images, for noise reduction and gamma transformation necessary for enhancement of the vessels. The main core of the algorithm consists of segmentation of the vessel sections, selection of the vessels centroids, and construction of graph structure storing branches and nodes of the network. Three types of segmentation algorithms were analysed: algorithms with automatic and manual threshold segmentation (where threshold is based on image histogram); and binarization with hysteresis. The vascular trees obtained from two types of images were compared with each other. The developed algorithm allows for creation of three-dimensional model of cerebral vascular network and is potentially useful for the diagnosis of various vascular system abnormalities/diseases of the brain , as well as for the scientific simulations of blood flow or prediction of the drug distribution in the brain.

Pages: 59 to 62

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2014

Publication date: April 20, 2014

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4383

ISBN: 978-1-61208-335-3

Location: Chamonix, France

Dates: from April 20, 2014 to April 24, 2014