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A novel scheme of external force for detecting the object boundary of medical image based on Snakes (active contours) is introduced in the paper. In our new method, an electrostatic field on a template plane above the original image plane is designed to form the map of the external force. Compared with the method of Gradient Vector Flow (GVF), our approach has clear physical meanings. It has stronger ability to conform to boundary concavities, is simple to implement, and reliable for shape segmenting. Additionally, our method has larger capture range for the external force and is useful for medical image preprocessing in various applications. Finally, by adding the balloon force to the electrostatic field model, our Snake is able to represent long tube-like shapes or shapes with significant protrusions or bifurcations, and it has the specialty to prevent Snake leaking from large gaps on image edge by using a two-stage segmentation technique introduced in this paper. The test of our models proves that our methods are robust, precise in medical image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Respiratory motion results in significant motion blur in thoracic and abdomen PET imaging. The extent of respiratory motion blur is mainly correlated with breathing amplitude, tumor size and location. In this paper we introduce a statistical study to quantitatively show the factors influencing the extent of respiratory motion blur in thoracic PET images. The study is centered on two regression models, one is linked with motion blur induced loss of mean intensity(LMI), tumor motion magnitude and tumor size, and another is to investigate the influence of tumor location, patient gender and patient height on tumor motion magnitude. We use the blur identification and image restoration technique to estimate the tumor motion and compute the LMI. The regression model was validated by simulation and phantom data before extended to 39 cases of clinical lung tumor PET images corrupted with blurring artifact. Results show that the motion magnitude of lung tumor during breathing is 10.9±3.7mm in transaxial plane, and it is significantly greater in lower lung lobes than in upper lobes. The LMI is 7.1±2.4% in the region of interest (ROI) above 40% of the image''s maximum intensity. The least-square estimate of regression equations demonstrates that LMI is proportional to tumor motion magnitude and is inversely proportional to tumor size; the two factors play the same role in determining the extent of respiratory motion blur in thoraco-abdominal PET imaging. The location of tumor was shown as the major factor determining its motion magnitude, while the influencing of patient gender and height on tumor motion was not shown significant. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]