Algorithm for automatic endocardium identification in digital echocardiography image sequences

The present paper describes an automated procedure for the detection of left ventricular internal wall edges in digital echocardiographic image sequences. The proposed procedure is divided into three steps and programmed in C/UNIX. It includes the use of a specially designed, application-specific adaptive spatio-temporal filter for noise reduction in echocardiographic image sequences, local 3-D histogram equalization for augmented contrast, and segmentation of the left ventricle using a regional growth method. When designing the adaptive spatio-temporal filter, we took into account the fact that the background noise is correlated in tangential orientation due to beam deflection at interfaces characterized by a large impedance "jump". Using the specially designed filter, the background noise is successfully reduced without degrading the ventricular contours. The simulation results presented highlight the performance of the proposed method in an exemplary manner.