Robust layer segmentation of esophageal OCT images based on graph search using edge-enhanced weights

Automatic segmentation of esophageal layers in OCT images is crucial for studying esophageal diseases and computer-assisted diagnosis. This work aims to improve the current techniques to increase the accuracy and robustness for esophageal OCT image segmentation. A two-step edge-enhanced graph search (EEGS) framework is proposed in this study. Firstly, a preprocessing scheme is applied to suppress speckle noise and remove the disturbance in the esophageal structure. Secondly, the image is formulated into a graph and layer boundaries are located by graph search. In this process, we propose an edge-enhanced weight matrix for the graph by combining the vertical gradients with a Canny edge map. Experiments on esophageal OCT images from guinea pigs demonstrate that the EEGS framework is more robust and more accurate than the current segmentation method. It can be potentially useful for the early detection of esophageal diseases.