Interactive medical image segmentation using PDE control of active contours

Segmentation of injured or unusual anatomic structures in medical imagery is a problem that has continued to elude fully automated solutions. In this paper, the goal of easy-to-use and consistent interactive segmentation is transformed into a control synthesis problem. A nominal level set partial differential equation (PDE) is assumed to be given; this open-loop system achieves correct segmentation under ideal conditions, but does not agree with a human expert's ideal boundary for real image data. Perturbing the state and dynamics of a level set PDE via the accumulated user input and an observer-like system leads to desirable closed-loop behavior. The input structure is designed such that a user can stabilize the boundary in some desired state without needing to understand any mathematical parameters. Effectiveness of the technique is illustrated with applications to the challenging segmentations of a patellar tendon in magnetic resonance and a shattered femur in computed tomography.