Fully automatic liver segmentation combining multi-dimensional graph cut with shape information in 3D CT images

Abstract

Abstract Liver segmentation is an essential procedure in computer-assisted surgery, radiotherapy, and volume measurement. It is still a challenging task to extract liver tissue from 3D CT images owing to nearby organs with similar intensities. In this paper, an automatic approach integrating multi-dimensional features into graph cut refinement is developed and validated. Multi-atlas segmentation is utilized to estimate the coarse shape of liver on the target image. The unsigned distance field based on initial shape is then calculated throughout the whole image, which aims at automatic graph construction during refinement procedure. Finally, multi-dimensional features and shape constraints are embedded into graph cut framework. The optimal liver region can be precisely detected with a minimal cost. The proposed technique is evaluated on 40 CT scans, obtained from two public databases Sliver07 and 3Dircadb1. The dataset Sliver07 is considered as the training set for parameter learning. On the dataset 3Dircadb1, the average of volume overlap is up to 94%. The experiment results indicate that the proposed method has ability to reach the desired boundary of liver and has potential value for clinical application.