使用边缘检测和Hough变换自动分割颈动脉超声图像

Automatic Segmentation of Carotid Ultrasound Image Using Edge Detection and Hough Transform

颈动脉是给人体大脑供血的主要血管。通过颈动脉的运输,人体的血液从心脏出发,可输送至头、面、颈部等。颈动脉狭窄程度与人体脑部健康有密切关系,重度狭窄的患者可能会发生脑缺血或脑梗塞,特别严重的甚至会死亡。诊断颈动脉狭窄可通过医学影像学检查的方式来确定。常用的医学影像方法是对动脉血管形态的分析和对脑组织的检查。通过无损害的超声对动脉血管进行分析,患者可以在颈动脉狭窄早期及时调理,控制进一步恶化。超声图像自动分割动脉管腔是临床诊断中的一项重要任务。提出采用边缘检测和Hough变换自动提取代表颈动脉纵切面B超图像中血管形态的直线,经过实验研究证实该方法的有效性,是分割颈动脉的超声图像一种可靠技术,还可进一步估计血管的直径。该自动算法也同样适用于超声图像估计颈动脉内膜厚度(IMT)和其他目标区域边缘近似直线的医学图像分割。

The carotid artery is one of the main large blood supply vessels of the brain that transports blood from the heart to the head,face,and neck.Severe carotid artery stenosis may cause cerebral ischemia or cerebral infarction in patients,further causing disability and even death.The diagnosis of carotid stenosis can be determined by medical imaging.At present,the imaging examination methods used in the clinic mainly include the morphological examination of blood vessels and the examination of brain tissue.By analyzing the ultrasound images of arterial blood vessels,patients can be conditioned in the early stages of carotid stenosis,and the control is further deteriorated.Automatic segmenta⁃tion of arterial lumen from ultrasound images is an important task in clinical diagnosis.Proposes to use edge detection and Hough transform to automatically extract straight lines representing the morphology of blood vessels in the B-ultrasound image of the longitudinal section of the carotid artery.Experimental research has confirmed the effectiveness of this method.It is a reliable technique for segmenting ultra⁃sound images of the carotid artery.The diameter of the blood vessel could also be estimated.This automatic algorithm is also suitable to estimate carotid intimal thickness(IMT)or to segment other ultrasound images which edges of target areas approximate straight.