	US 7,400,757 B2
	System and method for segmenting the left ventricle in a cardiac image
Marie-Pierre Jolly, Hillsborough, N.J. (US); Ying Sun, Plainsboro, N.J. (US); and Nicolae Duta, Medford, Mass. (US)
Assigned to Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Malvern, Pa. (US)
Filed on Feb. 02, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/49,188.
Application 11/049188 is a continuation in part of application No. 09/970552, filed on Oct. 04, 2001, granted, now 6,961,454.
Prior Publication US 2005/0238215 A1, Oct. 27, 2005
Int. Cl. G06K 9/00 (2006.01)

U.S. Cl. 382—131

19 Claims

1. A method for segmenting an image of interest of a cardiac chamber comprising:

determining a myocardium response image according to a histogram of pixel intensity in the image of interest;

determining a plurality of candidate contours, according to a plurality of energy functions and the myocardium response image, wherein each of the plurality of candidate contours is assigned a confidence value, wherein the confidence value is determined at every pixel along the candidate contours; and

determining whether shape information exists for shape propagation,

wherein the confidence values are modified upon determining that no shape information exists to recover a candidate endocardium contour according to a distance from a center mass of the confidence values of the pixels, wherein the candidate endocardium contour outlines a myocardium contour according to modified confidence values, and to recover a candidate epicardium contour according to the candidate endocardium contour, and

wherein the myocardium contour is recovered in the presence of shape information by propagating the shape information weighted by the confidence values at each pixel by applying a plurality of shape constraints to the candidate endocardium contours and the candidate epicardium contours, the shape information comprising the candidate endocardium contours and the candidate epicardium contours.