Automatic Needle Segmentation in 3D Ultrasound Data Using a Hough Transform Approach

Segmentation in ultrasound data is a very challenging field of research in medical image processing. This article presents a method for automatic segmentation of biopsy needles and straight objects in noisy 3D image data. It uses a Hough-based segmentation approach, which has been exemplary adapted for the application on prostate biopsy data. An evaluation was performed on in-vivo 3D US data and shows promising results. Angular segmentation accuracy was evaluated with a mean of 2.1 degrees, which is comparable to human observers.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: BILDMED
• Authors: Philipp Hartmann, Matthias Baumhauer, Jens Rassweiler, Hans-Peter Meinzer
• Keywords: Angular Segmentation Accuracy, Automatic Segmentation, BILDMED 2007, BILDMED 2009, Hough-based Segmentation Approach