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Alberto Hidalgo, Ferran Poveda, Enric Marti, Debora Gil, Albert Andaluz, Francesc Carreras, et al. (2012). Evidence of continuous helical structure of the cardiac ventricular anatomy assessed by diffusion tensor imaging magnetic resonance multiresolution tractography. ECR - European Radiology, 3(1), 361–362.
Abstract: Deep understanding of myocardial structure linking morphology and func- tion of the heart would unravel crucial knowledge for medical and surgical clinical procedures and studies. Diffusion tensor MRI provides a discrete measurement of the 3D arrangement of myocardial fibres by the observation of local anisotropic
diffusion of water molecules in biological tissues. In this work, we present a multi- scale visualisation technique based on DT-MRI streamlining capable of uncovering additional properties of the architectural organisation of the heart. Methods and Materials: We selected the John Hopkins University (JHU) Canine Heart Dataset, where the long axis cardiac plane is aligned with the scanner’s Z- axis. Their equipment included a 4-element passed array coil emitting a 1.5 T. For DTI acquisition, a 3D-FSE sequence is apply. We used 200 seeds for full-scale tractography, while we applied a MIP mapping technique for simplified tractographic reconstruction. In this case, we reduced each DTI 3D volume dimensions by order- two magnitude before streamlining.
Our simplified tractographic reconstruction method keeps the main geometric features of fibres, allowing for an easier identification of their global morphological disposition, including the ventricular basal ring. Moreover, we noticed a clearly visible helical disposition of the myocardial fibres, in line with the helical myocardial band ventricular structure described by Torrent-Guasp. Finally, our simplified visualisation with single tracts identifies the main segments of the helical ventricular architecture.
DT-MRI makes possible the identification of a continuous helical architecture of the myocardial fibres, which validates Torrent-Guasp’s helical myocardial band ventricular anatomical model.
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Enric Marti, Debora Gil, & Carme Julia. (2008). Experiencia d aplicació de la metodología d aprenentatge per proyectes en assignatures d Enginyeria Informàtica per a una millor adaptació als crèdits ECTS i EEES (IDES-UAB, & E. A. M.Enric Martinez, Eds.) (Vol. 1). UAB.
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Francesco Brughi, Debora Gil, Llorenç Badiella, Eva Jove Casabella, & Oriol Ramos Terrades. (2014). Exploring the impact of inter-query variability on the performance of retrieval systems. In 11th International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition (Vol. 8814, 413–420). LNCS. Springer International Publishing.
Abstract: This paper introduces a framework for evaluating the performance of information retrieval systems. Current evaluation metrics provide an average score that does not consider performance variability across the query set. In this manner, conclusions lack of any statistical significance, yielding poor inference to cases outside the query set and possibly unfair comparisons. We propose to apply statistical methods in order to obtain a more informative measure for problems in which different query classes can be identified. In this context, we assess the performance variability on two levels: overall variability across the whole query set and specific query class-related variability. To this end, we estimate confidence bands for precision-recall curves, and we apply ANOVA in order to assess the significance of the performance across different query classes.
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Debora Gil, & Petia Radeva. (2005). Extending anisotropic operators to recover smooth shapes. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 99(1), 110–125.
Abstract: Anisotropic differential operators are widely used in image enhancement processes. Recently, their property of smoothly extending functions to the whole image domain has begun to be exploited. Strong ellipticity of differential operators is a requirement that ensures existence of a unique solution. This condition is too restrictive for operators designed to extend image level sets: their own functionality implies that they should restrict to some vector field. The diffusion tensor that defines the diffusion operator links anisotropic processes with Riemmanian manifolds. In this context, degeneracy implies restricting diffusion to the varieties generated by the vector fields of positive eigenvalues, provided that an integrability condition is satisfied. We will use that any smooth vector field fulfills this integrability requirement to design line connection algorithms for contour completion. As application we present a segmenting strategy that assures convergent snakes whatever the geometry of the object to be modelled is.
Keywords: Contour completion; Functional extension; Differential operators; Riemmanian manifolds; Snake segmentation
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Patricia Marquez, H. Kause, A. Fuster, Aura Hernandez-Sabate, L. Florack, Debora Gil, et al. (2014). Factors Affecting Optical Flow Performance in Tagging Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In 17th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (Vol. 8896, pp. 231–238). LNCS. Springer International Publishing.
Abstract: Changes in cardiac deformation patterns are correlated with cardiac pathologies. Deformation can be extracted from tagging Magnetic Resonance Imaging (tMRI) using Optical Flow (OF) techniques. For applications of OF in a clinical setting it is important to assess to what extent the performance of a particular OF method is stable across dierent clinical acquisition artifacts. This paper presents a statistical validation framework, based on ANOVA, to assess the motion and appearance factors that have the largest in uence on OF accuracy drop.
In order to validate this framework, we created a database of simulated tMRI data including the most common artifacts of MRI and test three dierent OF methods, including HARP.
Keywords: Optical flow; Performance Evaluation; Synthetic Database; ANOVA; Tagging Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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Joan M. Nuñez, Debora Gil, & Fernando Vilariño. (2013). Finger joint characterization from X-ray images for rheymatoid arthritis assessment. In 6th International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices (pp. 288–292). SciTePress.
Abstract: In this study we propose amodular systemfor automatic rheumatoid arthritis assessment which provides a joint space width measure. A hand joint model is proposed based on the accurate analysis of a X-ray finger joint image sample set. This model shows that the sclerosis and the lower bone are the main necessary features in order to perform a proper finger joint characterization. We propose sclerosis and lower bone detection methods as well as the experimental setup necessary for its performance assessment. Our characterization is used to propose and compute a joint space width score which is shown to be related to the different degrees of arthritis. This assertion is verified by comparing our proposed score with Sharp Van der Heijde score, confirming that the lower our score is the more advanced is the patient affection.
Keywords: Rheumatoid Arthritis; X-Ray; Hand Joint; Sclerosis; Sharp Van der Heijde
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H.Martin Kjer, Jens Fagertuna, Sergio Vera, Debora Gil, Miguel Angel Gonzalez Ballester, & Rasmus R. Paulsena. (2016). Free-form image registration of human cochlear uCT data using skeleton similarity as anatomical prior. PRL - Patter Recognition Letters, 76(1), 76–82.
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Oriol Pujol, Debora Gil, & Petia Radeva. (2005). Fundamentals of Stop and Go active models. Image and Vision Computing, 23(8), 681–691.
Abstract: An efficient snake formulation should conform to the idea of picking the smoothest curve among all the shapes approximating an object of interest. In current geodesic snakes, the regularizing curvature also affects the convergence stage, hindering the latter at concave regions. In the present work, we make use of characteristic functions to define a novel geodesic formulation that decouples regularity and convergence. This term decoupling endows the snake with higher adaptability to non-convex shapes. Convergence is ensured by splitting the definition of the external force into an attractive vector field and a repulsive one. In our paper, we propose to use likelihood maps as approximation of characteristic functions of object appearance. The better efficiency and accuracy of our decoupled scheme are illustrated in the particular case of feature space-based segmentation.
Keywords: Deformable models; Geodesic snakes; Region-based segmentation
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Debora Gil. (2004). Geometric Differential Operators for Shape Modelling (Jordi Saludes i Closa, & Petia Radeva, Eds.). Ph.D. thesis, Ediciones Graficas Rey, Barcelona (Spain).
Abstract: Medical imaging feeds research in many computer vision and image processing fields: image filtering, segmentation, shape recovery, registration, retrieval and pattern matching. Because of their low contrast changes and large variety of artifacts and noise, medical imaging processing techniques relying on an analysis of the geometry of image level sets rather than on intensity values result in more robust treatment. From the starting point of treatment of intravascular images, this PhD thesis ad- dresses the design of differential image operators based on geometric principles for a robust shape modelling and restoration. Among all fields applying shape recovery, we approach filtering and segmentation of image objects. For a successful use in real images, the segmentation process should go through three stages: noise removing, shape modelling and shape recovery. This PhD addresses all three topics, but for the sake of algorithms as automated as possible, techniques for image processing will be designed to satisfy three main principles: a) convergence of the iterative schemes to non-trivial states avoiding image degeneration to a constant image and representing smooth models of the originals; b) smooth asymptotic behav- ior ensuring stabilization of the iterative process; c) fixed parameter values ensuring equal (domain free) performance of the algorithms whatever initial images/shapes. Our geometric approach to the generic equations that model the different processes approached enables defining techniques satisfying all the former requirements. First, we introduce a new curvature-based geometric flow for image filtering achieving a good compromise between noise removing and resemblance to original images. Sec- ond, we describe a new family of diffusion operators that restrict their scope to image level curves and serve to restore smooth closed models from unconnected sets of points. Finally, we design a regularization of snake (distance) maps that ensures its smooth convergence towards any closed shape. Experiments show that performance of the techniques proposed overpasses that of state-of-the-art algorithms.
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Sergio Vera, Debora Gil, Agnes Borras, Marius George Linguraru, & Miguel Angel Gonzalez Ballester. (2013). Geometric Steerable Medial Maps. MVA - Machine Vision and Applications, 24(6), 1255–1266.
Abstract: In order to provide more intuitive and easily interpretable representations of complex shapes/organs, medial manifolds should reach a compromise between simplicity in geometry and capability for restoring the anatomy/shape of the organ/volume. Existing morphological methods show excellent results when applied to 2D objects, but their quality drops across dimensions.
This paper contributes to the computation of medial manifolds in two aspects. First, we provide a standard scheme for the computation of medial manifolds that avoids degenerated medial axis segments. Second, we introduce a continuous operator for accurate and efficient computation of medial structures of arbitrary dimension. We evaluate quantitatively the performance of our method with respect to existing approaches, by applying them to syn- thetic shapes of known medial geometry. We also show its higher performance for medical imaging applications in terms of simplicity of medial structures and capability for reconstructing the anatomical volume.
Keywords: Medial Representations ,Medial Manifolds Comparation , Surface , Reconstruction
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Ferran Poveda, Debora Gil, Enric Marti, Albert Andaluz, Manel Ballester, & Francesc Carreras Costa. (2013). Helical structure of the cardiac ventricular anatomy assessed by Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging multi-resolution tractography. REC - Revista Española de Cardiología, 66(10), 782–790.
Abstract: Deep understanding of myocardial structure linking morphology and function of the heart would unravel crucial knowledge for medical and surgical clinical procedures and studies. Several conceptual models of myocardial fiber organization have been proposed but the lack of an automatic and objective methodology prevented an agreement. We sought to deepen in this knowledge through advanced computer graphic representations of the myocardial fiber architecture by diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI).
We performed automatic tractography reconstruction of unsegmented DT-MRI canine heart datasets coming from the public database of the Johns Hopkins University. Full scale tractographies have been build with 200 seeds and are composed by streamlines computed on the vectorial field of primary eigenvectors given at the diffusion tensor volumes. Also, we introduced a novel multi-scale visualization technique in order to obtain a simplified tractography. This methodology allowed to keep the main geometric features of the fiber tracts, making easier to decipher the main properties of the architectural organization of the heart.
On the analysis of the output from our tractographic representations we found exact correlation with low-level details of myocardial architecture, but also with the more abstract conceptualization of a continuous helical ventricular myocardial fiber array.
Objective analysis of myocardial architecture by an automated method, including the entire myocardium and using several 3D levels of complexity, reveals a continuous helical myocardial fiber arrangement of both right and left ventricles, supporting the anatomical model of the helical ventricular myocardial band described by Torrent-Guasp.
Keywords: Heart;Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging;Diffusion tractography;Helical heart;Myocardial ventricular band.
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Ferran Poveda, Enric Marti, Debora Gil, Francesc Carreras, & Manel Ballester. (2012). Helical Structure of Ventricular Anatomy by Diffusion Tensor Cardiac MR Tractography. JACC - Journal of American College of Cardiology, 5(7), 754–755.
Abstract: It is widely accepted that myocardial fiber architecture plays a critical role in myocardial contractility and relaxation (1). However, there is a lack of consensus about the distribution of the myocardial fibers and their spatial arrangement in the left and right ventricles. An understanding of the cardiac architecture should benefit the ventricular functional assessment, left ventricular reconstructive surgery planning, or resynchronization therapy in heart failure. Researchers have proposed several conceptual models to describe the architecture of the heart, ranging from gross dissection to histological presentation. The cardiac mesh model (2) proposes that the myocytes are arranged longitudinally and radially change their angulation along the myocardial depth. By contrast, the helical ventricular myocardial model states that the ventricular myocardium is a continuous anatomical helical layout of myocardial fibers (1
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Aura Hernandez-Sabate, Debora Gil, & Albert Teis. (2007). How Do Conservation Laws Define a Motion Suppression Score in In-Vivo Ivus Sequences? In Proc. IEEE Ultrasonics Symp (pp. 2231–2234).
Abstract: Evaluation of arterial tissue biomechanics for diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases is an active research field in the biomedical imaging processing area. IntraVascular UltraSound (IVUS) is a unique tool for such assessment since it reflects tissue morphology and deformation. A proper quantification and visualization of both properties is hindered by vessel structures misalignments introduced by cardiac dynamics. This has encouraged development of IVUS motion compensation techniques. However, there is a lack of an objective evaluation of motion reduction ensuring a reliable clinical application This work reports a novel score, the Conservation of Density Rate (CDR), for validation of motion compensation in in-vivo pullbacks. Synthetic experiments validate the proposed score as measure of motion parameters accuracy; while results in in vivo pullbacks show its reliability in clinical cases.
Keywords: validation standards; IVUS motion compensation; conservation laws.
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Esmitt Ramirez, Carles Sanchez, Agnes Borras, Marta Diez-Ferrer, Antoni Rosell, & Debora Gil. (2018). Image-Based Bronchial Anatomy Codification for Biopsy Guiding in Video Bronchoscopy. In OR 2.0 Context-Aware Operating Theaters, Computer Assisted Robotic Endoscopy, Clinical Image-Based Procedures, and Skin Image Analysis (Vol. 11041). LNCS.
Abstract: Bronchoscopy examinations allow biopsy of pulmonary nodules with minimum risk for the patient. Even for experienced bronchoscopists, it is difficult to guide the bronchoscope to most distal lesions and obtain an accurate diagnosis. This paper presents an image-based codification of the bronchial anatomy for bronchoscopy biopsy guiding. The 3D anatomy of each patient is codified as a binary tree with nodes representing bronchial levels and edges labeled using their position on images projecting the 3D anatomy from a set of branching points. The paths from the root to leaves provide a codification of navigation routes with spatially consistent labels according to the anatomy observes in video bronchoscopy explorations. We evaluate our labeling approach as a guiding system in terms of the number of bronchial levels correctly codified, also in the number of labels-based instructions correctly supplied, using generalized mixed models and computer-generated data. Results obtained for three independent observers prove the consistency and reproducibility of our guiding system. We trust that our codification based on viewer’s projection might be used as a foundation for the navigation process in Virtual Bronchoscopy systems.
Keywords: Biopsy guiding; Bronchoscopy; Lung biopsy; Intervention guiding; Airway codification
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Aura Hernandez-Sabate, Debora Gil, Jaume Garcia, & Enric Marti. (2011). Image-based Cardiac Phase Retrieval in Intravascular Ultrasound Sequences. T-UFFC - IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, 58(1), 60–72.
Abstract: Longitudinal motion during in vivo pullbacks acquisition of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) sequences is a major artifact for 3-D exploring of coronary arteries. Most current techniques are based on the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal to obtain a gated pullback without longitudinal motion by using specific hardware or the ECG signal itself. We present an image-based approach for cardiac phase retrieval from coronary IVUS sequences without an ECG signal. A signal reflecting cardiac motion is computed by exploring the image intensity local mean evolution. The signal is filtered by a band-pass filter centered at the main cardiac frequency. Phase is retrieved by computing signal extrema. The average frame processing time using our setup is 36 ms. Comparison to manually sampled sequences encourages a deeper study comparing them to ECG signals.
Keywords: 3-D exploring; ECG; band-pass filter; cardiac motion; cardiac phase retrieval; coronary arteries; electrocardiogram signal; image intensity local mean evolution; image-based cardiac phase retrieval; in vivo pullbacks acquisition; intravascular ultrasound sequences; longitudinal motion; signal extrema; time 36 ms; band-pass filters; biomedical ultrasonics; cardiovascular system; electrocardiography; image motion analysis; image retrieval; image sequences; medical image processing; ultrasonic imaging
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