Adaptive-Focus Deformable Model (AFDM) for medical image segmentation

Adaptive-Focus Deformable Model (AFDM) for medical image segmentation

We developed a deformable surface model for automatically segmenting brain structures from volumetric MR images and obtaining point correspondences, using geometric and statistical information in a hierarchical scheme. Geometric information is embedded into the model via a set of affine-invariant attribute vectors, each of which characterizes the geometric structure around a point of the model from a local to a global scale. The attribute vectors, in conjunction with the deformation mechanism of the model, warranty that the model not only deforms to nearby edges, as is customary in most deformable surface models, but also that it determines point correspondences based on geometric similarity at different scales. The proposed model is adaptive in that it initially focuses on the most reliable structures of interest, and gradually shifts focus to other structures as those become closer to their respective targets and therefore more reliable. The proposed techniques have been used to segment boundaries of the ventricles, the caudate nucleus, and the lenticular nucleus from volumetric MR images. The details of this method can be found from our TMI paper and PAMI paper.

We have begun to apply AFDM in several clinical problems, with very promising results in terms of accuracy and robustness of the algorithm. We have completed a study on shape reconstruction of the hippocampus , the ventricles, and subcortical structures of the human brain, in which we have shown that AFDM performs just as well as well-trained human raters, offering the additional advantages of reproducibility and automation. We have also applied the AFDM framework to the problem of spatial normalization of spine images for the purpose of elucidating structure-function relationships.
  1. Demo on segmenting hippocampus (May 2001)

  2. Demo on segmenting the ventricles, the caudate nucleus, and lenticular nucleus

  3. Demo on segmenting spine

  4. Demo on segmenting femur bone

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