Automatic lung fields segmentation in CT scans using morphological operation and anatomical information

Segmenting lung fields from CT (Computed Tomography) scans is an important task for the analysis, diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary diseases. Although many segmentation methods have been presented, some new automatic segmentation methods for the lung fields are still proposed for the CT scans. This paper proposes a novel segmentation method for lung fields by using morphological closing operations and thresholding for normal lungs in CT scans. Additionally, under the guidance of anatomic information, the lung fields could be well segmented with lobar fissure, thin junction between the left/right lung fields, indentation of the blood vessels and bronchi-walls. This experiment is performed by employing the thoracic CT scans datasets, and it is proved to be an effective method.