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Automatic detection of anatomical landmarks on the knee joint using MRI data
Author(s) -
Xue Ning,
Doellinger Michael,
Ho Charles P.,
Surowiec Rachel K.,
Schwarz Raphael
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.24516
Subject(s) - landmark , computer science , artificial intelligence , initialization , robustness (evolution) , computer vision , segmentation , pattern recognition (psychology) , joint (building) , architectural engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , engineering , gene , programming language
Purpose To propose a new automated learning‐based scheme for locating anatomical landmarks on the knee joint using three‐dimensional (3D) MR image data. Materials and Methods This method makes use of interest points as candidates for landmarks. All candidates are evaluated by a “coarse to fine” 3D feature descriptor computed from manually placed landmarks in training datasets. The results are refined using a multi‐classifier boosting system. We demonstrate our method by the detection of 24 landmarks on the knee joint of 35 subjects. To verify the robustness, the test datasets differ in contrast, resolution, patient positioning, and health condition of the knee joint. The proposed method is evaluated by measuring the distance between manually placed landmarks and automatically detected landmarks and the computational cost for detecting one landmark in a 3D dataset. Results The results reveal that the method is capable of localizing landmarks with a reasonable accuracy (1.64 ± 1.03 mm [mean ± standard deviation]), sensitivity (97%) and run time efficiency (4.82 s). Conclusion This study suggests that the proposed method is an accurate and robust approach for the automated landmark detection in various MR datasets. The proposed method can be used as the initialization or constraint in higher level medical image processing workflows such as in kinematic description, segmentation and registration. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2015;41:183–192. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .