Segmentation of 3D Tubular Structures Based on 3D Intensity Models and Particle Filter Tracking

We introduce a new approach for tracking-based segmentation of 3D tubular structures. The approach is based on a novel combination of a 3D cylindrical intensity model and particle filter tracking. In comparison to earlier work we utilize a 3D intensity model as the measurement model of the particle filter, thus a more realistic 3D appearance model is used that directly represents the image intensities of 3D tubular structures within semi-global regions-of-interest. We have successfully applied our approach using 3D synthetic images and real 3D MRA image data of the human pelvis.