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Liver Isolation in Abdominal MRI

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Abstract

This work presents a method for liver isolation in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abdomen images. It is based on a priori statistical information about the shape of the liver obtained from a training set using the segmentation approach. Morphological watershed algorithm is used as a key technique as it is a simple and intuitive method, producing a complete division of the image in separated regions even if the contrast is poor, and it is fast, with possibility for parallel implementation. To overcome the over-segmentation problem of the watershed process, image preprocessing and post-processing are applied. Morphological smoothing, Gaussian smoothing, intensity thresholding, gradient computation and gradient thresholding are proposed for preprocessing with morphological and graph based region adjacent list constructed for region merging. A new integrated region similarity function is also defined for region merging control. The proposed method produces good isolation of liver in axial MRI images of the abdomen, as is shown in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Image Processing and Telemedicine (CIPTEM), Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, 63100, Cyberjaya, Malaysia

    Rajasvaran Logeswaran, Tan Wooi Haw & Shakowat Zaman Sarker

  2. Post-doctoral researcher, BK Digital Media Division, Soongsil University, Seoul, South Korea

    Rajasvaran Logeswaran

Authors
  1. Rajasvaran Logeswaran
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  2. Tan Wooi Haw
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  3. Shakowat Zaman Sarker
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Correspondence to Rajasvaran Logeswaran.

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Logeswaran, R., Haw, T.W. & Sarker, S.Z. Liver Isolation in Abdominal MRI. J Med Syst 32, 259–268 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-008-9131-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-008-9131-2

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