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Construction of an Algorithm for Three-Dimensional Bone Segmentation from Images Obtained by Computational Tomography

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Current and Future Trends in Health and Medical Informatics

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 1112))

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Abstract

This paper proposes a tool that extracts data from computational tomography (CT) scans of long bones, applies filters to allow a distinction between cortical and cancellous tissue, and converts the tissues into a three-dimensional (3D) model that can be used to generate finite element meshes. In order to identify the best segmentation technique for the problem under study, cortical, cancellous and medulla tissue segmentation was tested based on image histogram information, simple Hounsfield scale (HU) information, HU scale information with morphological operator filters, and active contour methods (active contour, random walker segmentation and findContours). These segmentations were evaluated qualitatively through a visual comparison and quantitatively through the calculation of the Dice Coefficient (DICE) and Mean-Squared Error (MSE) parameters. The developed algorithm presents a Dice higher than 0.95 and a MSE lower than 0.01 for cortical tissue segmentation, which allows it to be used as a bone characterization method.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Marta Barbosa, Francesco Renna & Rúben Costa

  2. INESC TEC, Porto, Portugal

    Francesco Renna

  3. CMEMS-UMINHO, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Nuno Dourado

  4. LABBELS—Associate Laboratory, Braga, Portugal

    Nuno Dourado

Authors
  1. Marta Barbosa
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  2. Francesco Renna
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  3. Nuno Dourado
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  4. Rúben Costa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marta Barbosa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science and Software Engineering, University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, MI, USA

    Kevin Daimi

  2. Asia Pacific International College, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Abeer Alsadoon

  3. School of Engineering, Polytechnique Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Sara Seabra Dos Reis

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Barbosa, M., Renna, F., Dourado, N., Costa, R. (2023). Construction of an Algorithm for Three-Dimensional Bone Segmentation from Images Obtained by Computational Tomography. In: Daimi, K., Alsadoon, A., Seabra Dos Reis, S. (eds) Current and Future Trends in Health and Medical Informatics. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 1112. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42112-9_3

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