Affiliations: Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological
Science, China Medical University, Taiwan | Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Peng Hu Hospital,
Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan | Department of Electrical Engineering, Chun Yuan
Christian University, Taiwan | Department of Radiology, China Medical University
Hospital, Taiwan | Department of Biomedical Informatics, Asia University,
Taiwan
Note: [] Corresponding author: Tzung-Chi Huang, Department of Biomedical
Imaging and Radiological Sciences, China Medical University, 91, Hsueh-Shih
Road, Taichung City, Taiwan. Tel.: +886 4 22053366 7805; E-mail:
tzungchi.huang@mail.cmu.edu.tw
Abstract: PURPOSE: Segmentation of the left ventricle (LV) in cardiac CT (CCT)
images is difficult due to the intensity heterogeneity arising from
accumulation of contrast agent in papillary muscle and trabeculae carneae. In
this study, we demonstrated the random walks method for LV segmentation in CCT
through cardiac phases. METHODS: 63 CCT data sets from 7 patients with 9 cardiac phases were
included in this study. All cardiac CT examinations were performed with GE
64-detector CT scanner with ECG gating. In each patient, 60–80 ml iohexol
was injected at a flow rate of 5 ml/sec followed by 60 ml normal saline
solution. Random walks (RW) based on probability of labels was used for LV
segmentation. The LV delineations generated by the experienced physician (MD),
conventional image-based method (IB), and RW were compared. RESULTS: In general the contours segment the LV closely by RW and
MD, but the discrepancies in papillary muscle and trabeculae carneae were
observed while using the IB method. CONCLUSION: We showed the RW method potentially improved LV
segmentation as compared to the volume by conventional IB method. In this
study, we demonstrated the clinical feasibility of LV volume segmentation using
random walks algorithm.
Keywords: Left ventricle, random walks, cardiac computed tomography
