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arXiv · 1805.02125

Estimation and Tracking of AP-diameter of the Inferior Vena Cava in Ultrasound Images Using a Novel Active Circle Algorithm

Abstract

Medical research suggests that the anterior-posterior (AP)-diameter of the inferior vena cava (IVC) and its associated temporal variation as imaged by bedside ultrasound is useful in guiding fluid resuscitation of the critically-ill patient. Unfortunately, indistinct edges and gaps in vessel walls are frequently present which impede accurate estimation of the IVC AP-diameter for both human operators and segmentation algorithms. The majority of research involving use of the IVC to guide fluid resuscitation involves manual measurement of the maximum and minimum AP-diameter as it varies over time. This effort proposes using a time-varying circle fitted inside the typically ellipsoid IVC as an efficient, consistent and novel approach to tracking and approximating the AP-diameter even in the context of poor image quality. In this active-circle algorithm, a novel evolution functional is proposed and shown to be a useful tool for ultrasound image processing. The proposed algorithm is compared with an expert manual measurement, and state-of-the-art relevant algorithms. It is shown that the algorithm outperforms other techniques and performs very close to manual measurement.

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Ebrahim Karami, Mohamed Shehata, Andrew Smith. 2018-08-08. Estimation and Tracking of AP-diameter of the Inferior Vena Cava in Ultrasound Images Using a Novel Active Circle Algorithm. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2018.05.001

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