Computer-aided lymph node segmentation in volumetric CT data

The purpose of this work was to develop and validate a computer-aided method for the 3D segmentation of lymph nodes in CT images. The proposed method can be utilized to facilitate applications like biopsy planning, image guided radiation treatment, or assessment of response to therapy.

An optimal surface finding based lymph node segmentation method was developed. Based on the approximate center point of a lymph node of interest, a graph is generated, which represents the local neighborhood around the lymph node at discrete locations (graph nodes). A cost function is calculated based on a weighted edge and region homogeneity term. By means of optimization, a surface-based segmentation of the lymph node is derived. In addition, an interactive segmentation refinement algorithm was developed, which allows the user to quickly correct segmentation errors, if needed. For assessment of segmentation accuracy, 111 lymph nodes of mediastinum, abdomen, head/neck, and axillary regions from 35 volumetric CT scans were utilized. For accuracy analysis, lymph nodes were divided into three test sets based on lymph node size and spatial resolution of the CT scan. The average lymph node size for test set I, II, and III was 1056, 1621, and 501 mm(3), respectively. Spatial resolution of test set II was lower than for test sets I and III. To generate an independent reference standard for comparison, all 111 lymph nodes were segmented by an expert with a live wire approach.

All test sets were segmented with the proposed approach. Out of the 111 lymph nodes, 40 cases (36%) required computer-aided refinement of initial segmentation results. The refinement typically required 10 s per lymph node. The mean and standard deviation of the Dice coefficient for final segmentations was 0.847 ± 0.061, 0.836 ± 0.058, and 0.809 ± 0.070 for test sets I, II, and II, respectively. The average signed surface distance error was 0.023 ± 0.171, 0.394 ± 0.189, and 0.001 ± 0.146 mm for test sets I, II, and II, respectively. The time required for locating the approximate center point of a target lymph node in a scan, generating an initial OSF segmentation, and refining the segmentation, if needed, is typically less than one minute.

Segmentation of lymph nodes in volumetric CT images is a challenging task due to partial volume effects, nearby strong edges, neighboring structures with similar intensity profiles and potentially inhomogeneous density of lymph nodes. The presented approach addresses many of these obstacles. In the majority of cases investigated, the initial segmentation method delivered results that did not require further processing. In addition, the computer-aided segmentation refinement framework was found to be effective in dealing with potentially occurring segmentation errors.