Liver segmental anatomy and analysis from vessel and tumor segmentation

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 — Poster Session III
10:00 a.m. – Noon	Natcher Conference Center	CC	IMAG-29

Authors

• V Pamulapati
• BJ Wood
• MG Linguraru

Abstract

The segmentation and classification of the major intra-hepatic blood vessels along with the segmentation and analysis of hepatic tumors are critical for patient specific models of the diseased liver. Additionally, the accurate identification of liver anatomical segments can assist in the clinical assessment of the risks and benefits of hepatic interventions. We propose a novel 4D graph-based method to segment hepatic vasculature and tumors. The algorithm uses multi-phase CT images to model the differential enhancement of the liver structures and Hessian-based shape likelihoods to avoid the common pitfalls of graph cuts with undersegmentation and intensity heterogeneity. A hybrid classification step identifies the right, middle and left hepatic, and portal veins. Veins are tracked using a graph representation and planes fitted to vessel segments. This allows the identification of the liver segments and evaluation of tumors and vasculature in relation to the patient specific liver anatomy. Results were obtained on CT data from 13 normal and diseased livers to allow the clinical assessment of these patients.

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