Segmentation of Neuro Tumours: from MR and Ultrasound images

We have implemented and tested segmentation methods for segmenting brain tumours from magnetic resonance (MR) and ultrasound data. Our work in this thesis mainly focuses on active contours, both parametric (snakes) and geometric contours (level set). Active contours have the advantage over simpler segmentation methods that they are able to take both high- and low-level information into consideration. This means that the result they produce both depends on shape as well as intensity information from the input image. Our work is based on the results from an earlier completed depth study which investigated different segmentation methods. We have implemented and tested one simplified gradient vector flow snake model and four level set approaches: fast marching level set, geodesic level set, canny edge level set, and Laplacian level set. The methods are evaluated based on precision of the region boundary, sensitivity to noise, the effort needed to adjust parameters and the time to perform the segmentation. We have also compared the results with the result from a region growing method. We achieved promising results for active contour segmentation methods compared with other, simpler segmentation methods. The simplified snake model has given promising results, but has to be subject to more testing. Furthermore, tests with four variants of the level set method have given good results in most cases with MR data and in some cases with ultrasound data.