Stent shape estimation through a comprehensive interpretation of intravascular ultrasound images

We present a method for automatic struts detection and stent shape estimation in cross-sectional intravascular ultrasound images. A stent shape is first estimated through a comprehensive interpretation of the vessel morphology, performed using a supervised context-aware multi-class classification scheme. Then, the successive strut identification exploits both local appearance and the defined stent shape. The method is tested on 589 images obtained from 80 patients, achieving a F-measure of 74.1% and an averaged distance between manual and automatic struts of 0.10 mm.