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Automated seed detection and three‐dimensional reconstruction. I. Seed localization from fluoroscopic images or radiographs
Author(s) -
Tubic Dragan,
Zaccarin André,
Pouliot Jean,
Beaulieu Luc
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.1414308
Subject(s) - thresholding , artificial intelligence , orientation (vector space) , computer vision , computer science , radiography , normalization (sociology) , image processing , image intensifier , nuclear medicine , pattern recognition (psychology) , mathematics , medicine , radiology , image (mathematics) , optics , physics , geometry , sociology , anthropology
An automated procedure for the detection of the position and the orientation of radioactive seeds on fluoroscopic images or scanned radiographs is presented. The extracted positions of seed centers and the orientations are used for three‐dimensional reconstruction of permanent prostate implants. The extraction procedure requires several steps: correction of image intensifier distortions, normalization, background removal, automatic threshold selection, thresholding, and finally, moment analysis and classification of the connected components. The algorithm was tested on 75 fluoroscopic images. The results show that, on average, 92% of the seeds are detected automatically. The orientation is found with an error smaller than 5° for 75% of the seeds. The orientation of overlapping seeds (10%) should be considered as an estimate at best. The image processing procedure can also be used for seed or catheter detection in CT images, with minor modifications.