Knowledge-Based System Guided Automatic Contour Segmentation of Abdominal Structures in CT Scans

Abstract

Abstract:The advice of automating computer applications is being increase to reduce the human interaction. Medical image segmentation is one of these applications, when done manually; it turns into a time-consuming and knowledge intensive task. As a result, automatic segmentation is in the focus of work to speed up segmentation processes. Fast and accurate segmentation would allow physicians to analyze and visualize the human structures and re-plan radiation therapy and surgery. This paper introduces a knowledge system based on different sources of medical knowledge to automate medical image segmentation through active contour methods. The way of getting benefit of the knowledge provided by medical atlas, expert's rules, image features, image multiple views and image Meta data introduced by this knowledge system. We classify the system in different domains in way can be manage properly to guide active contour segmentation methods for abdominal CT scans. The obtained results are very promising showing significant improvements over other methods where the volume measurements error is 7% and the processing time was improved by 68%.