Multiple MCT particle detection and tracking for analysing cystic fibrosis treatments in synchrotron phase contrast x-ray imaging

Thesis (PhD(Computer and Information Science))--University of South Australia, 2019. Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-192) Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is one of the most common recessive genetic disorders in the Caucasian population. For the development of potential therapies for CF disease, our research partners have introduced a new method to non-invasively quantify mucociliary transit (MCT) activity using Synchrotron Phase Contrast X-ray Imaging (PCXI), by visualizing the motion of micron-sized spherical particles deposited into the nasal airways of live mice. However, manual analysis of a large number of particles is a labour-intensive and error-prone task in this application. Therefore, this thesis proposes new algorithms to automatically detect and track the particle movements in the low-contrast PCXI. Through our outcomes, medical experts can dramatically reduce the amount of time and efforts for MCT analysis in response to administered treatments for CF disease.