Nodule boundary detection

Details Nodule boundary detection Nodule boundary detection

2004-06-17

2009-08-11

Azarian, Seyed (Department: 2624)

Image analysis

Applications

Biomedical applications

C382S171000, C378S023000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07574031

ABSTRACT:
A method of detecting the extent of a lung nodule in a scan image comprises fine segmenting (14) a region around the nodule into foreground and background, filling holes within foreground areas (16), region growing the foreground (18) to identify an initial region of interest, determining a mask (20) by enlarging the initial region to contain background and to exclude other foreground regions, determining a spatial map (26) of connectivity within the mask to a point within the initial region, region growing (28) within the mask and determining the maximum edge contrast (30) during region growing. The region of maximum edge contrast identifies the extent of the nodule (32). The position of the nodule may a seed point identified by the user (12). Most preferably, an optimum seed point is determined by iterative determination of seed points (22, 24) so that the determined extent of the nodule is substantially independent of the precise location of the seed point identified by the user.

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