Abstract: Smoothing of biomedical images should preserve gray-level transitions between adjacent tissues, while restoring contours consistent with anatomical structures. Anisotropic diffusion operators are based on image appearance discontinuities (either local or contextual) and might fail at weak inter-tissue transitions. Meanwhile, the output of block-wise and morphological operations is prone to present a block structure due to the shape and size of the considered pixel neighborhood. In this contribution, we use differential geometry concepts to define a diffusion operator that restricts to image consistent level-sets. In this manner, the final state is a non-uniform intensity image presenting homogeneous inter-tissue transitions along anatomical structures, while smoothing intra-structure texture. Experiments on different types of medical images (magnetic resonance, computerized tomography) illustrate its benefit on a further process (such as segmentation) of images.

Abstract: Presentamos una experiencia en Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABP) realizada los últimos cuatro años en Gráficos por Computador 2, asignatura de Ingeniería Informática, de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería (ETSE) de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB). Utilizamos un entorno Moodle adaptado por nosotros llamado Caronte para poder gestionar la documentación generada en ABP. Primero se presenta la asignatura, basada en dos itinerarios para cursarla: ABP y TPPE (Teoría, Problemas, Prácticas, Examen). El alumno debe escoger uno de ellos. Ambos itinerarios generan una cantidad importante de documentación (entregas de trabajos y prácticas, correcciones, ejercicios, etc.) a gestionar. En la comunicación presentamos los espacios electrónicos Moodle de ambos itinerarios. Finalmente, mostramos los resultados de encuestas realizadas a los alumnos para finalmente exponer las conclusiones de la experiencia en ABP y el uso de Moodle, así como plantear mejoras y temas de discusión.

Abstract: Cardiovascular Diseases, specially those affecting the Left Ventricle (LV), are the leading cause of death in developed countries with approximately a 30% of all global deaths. In order to address this public health concern, physicians focus on diagnosis and therapy planning. On one hand, early and accurate detection of Regional Wall Motion Abnormalities (RWMA) significantly contributes to a quick diagnosis and prevents the patient to reach more severe stages. On the other hand, a thouroughly knowledge of the normal gross anatomy of the LV, as well as, the distribution of its muscular fibers is crucial for designing specific interventions and therapies (such as pacemaker implanction). Statistical models obtained from the analysis of different imaging modalities allow the computation of the normal ranges of variation within a given population. Normality models are a valuable tool for the definition of objective criterions quantifying the degree of (anomalous) deviation of the LV function and anatomy for a given subject. The creation of statistical models involve addressing three main issues: extraction of data from images, definition of a common domain for comparison of data across patients and designing appropriate statistical analysis schemes. In this PhD thesis we present generic image processing tools for the creation of statistical models of the LV anatomy and function. On one hand, we use differential geometry concepts to define a computational framework (the Normalized Parametric Domain, NPD) suitable for the comparison and fusion of several clinical scores obtained over the LV. On the other hand, we present a variational approach (the Harmonic Phase Flow, HPF) for the estimation of myocardial motion that provides dense and continuous vector fields without overestimating motion at injured areas. These tools are used for the creation of statistical models. Regarding anatomy, we obtain an atlas jointly modelling, both, LV gross anatomy and fiber architecture. Regarding function, we compute normality patterns of scores characterizing the (global and local) LV function and explore, for the first time, the configuration of local scores better suited for RWMA detection.