Phase- and GVF-Based Level Set Segmentation of Ultrasonic Breast Tumors
Automatically extracting breast tumor boundaries in ultrasound images is a difficult task due to the speckle noise, the low image contrast, the variance in shapes, and the local changes of image intensity. In this paper, an improved edge-based active contour model in a variational level set formula...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2012-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Applied Mathematics |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/810805 |
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| _version_ | 1850159503524233216 |
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| author | Liang Gao Xiaoyun Liu Wufan Chen |
| author_facet | Liang Gao Xiaoyun Liu Wufan Chen |
| author_sort | Liang Gao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Automatically extracting breast tumor boundaries in ultrasound images is a difficult task due to the speckle noise, the low image contrast, the variance in shapes, and the local changes of image intensity. In this paper, an improved edge-based active contour model in a variational level set formulation is proposed for semi-automatically capturing ultrasonic breast tumor boundaries. First, we apply the phase asymmetry approach to enhance the edges, and then we define a new edge stopping function, which can increase the robustness to the intensity inhomogeneities. To extend the capture range of the method and provide good convergence to boundary concavities, we use the phase information to obtain an improved edge map, which can be used to calculate the gradient vector flow (GVF). Combining the edge stopping term and the improved GVF in the level set framework, the proposed method can robustly cope with noise, and it can extract the low contrast and/or concave boundaries well. Experiments on breast ultrasound images show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-art methods. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b5390ff53bf148f584fbfe9a79756bc5 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1110-757X 1687-0042 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Applied Mathematics |
| spelling | doaj-art-b5390ff53bf148f584fbfe9a79756bc52025-08-20T02:23:31ZengWileyJournal of Applied Mathematics1110-757X1687-00422012-01-01201210.1155/2012/810805810805Phase- and GVF-Based Level Set Segmentation of Ultrasonic Breast TumorsLiang Gao0Xiaoyun Liu1Wufan Chen2School of Automation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, ChinaSchool of Automation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, ChinaSchool of Automation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, ChinaAutomatically extracting breast tumor boundaries in ultrasound images is a difficult task due to the speckle noise, the low image contrast, the variance in shapes, and the local changes of image intensity. In this paper, an improved edge-based active contour model in a variational level set formulation is proposed for semi-automatically capturing ultrasonic breast tumor boundaries. First, we apply the phase asymmetry approach to enhance the edges, and then we define a new edge stopping function, which can increase the robustness to the intensity inhomogeneities. To extend the capture range of the method and provide good convergence to boundary concavities, we use the phase information to obtain an improved edge map, which can be used to calculate the gradient vector flow (GVF). Combining the edge stopping term and the improved GVF in the level set framework, the proposed method can robustly cope with noise, and it can extract the low contrast and/or concave boundaries well. Experiments on breast ultrasound images show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-art methods.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/810805 |
| spellingShingle | Liang Gao Xiaoyun Liu Wufan Chen Phase- and GVF-Based Level Set Segmentation of Ultrasonic Breast Tumors Journal of Applied Mathematics |
| title | Phase- and GVF-Based Level Set Segmentation of Ultrasonic Breast Tumors |
| title_full | Phase- and GVF-Based Level Set Segmentation of Ultrasonic Breast Tumors |
| title_fullStr | Phase- and GVF-Based Level Set Segmentation of Ultrasonic Breast Tumors |
| title_full_unstemmed | Phase- and GVF-Based Level Set Segmentation of Ultrasonic Breast Tumors |
| title_short | Phase- and GVF-Based Level Set Segmentation of Ultrasonic Breast Tumors |
| title_sort | phase and gvf based level set segmentation of ultrasonic breast tumors |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/810805 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lianggao phaseandgvfbasedlevelsetsegmentationofultrasonicbreasttumors AT xiaoyunliu phaseandgvfbasedlevelsetsegmentationofultrasonicbreasttumors AT wufanchen phaseandgvfbasedlevelsetsegmentationofultrasonicbreasttumors |