Review of Vessel Segmentation Methods Applied to Liver Volume Images

The paper presents a review of most common vessel segmentation methods useful mostly for 3D volume imaging modalities, like contrast enhanced computerized tomography (CE-CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Special attention was dedicated to segmentation of liver vasculature. The intention of the review was the selection of potential methods, which could be applied to liver segmentation for the purpose of tumour treatment by means of radio frequency ablation. Chosen methods were divided into two main groups "pixel to region" methods and "pixel to model". Vesselness filtering, level set methods, watershed segmentation were mentioned among others. In the "pixel to model" group a special focus was applied to deformable models like isosurface or B-spline surface based methods. Possible combinations of described methods into an image processing pipeline were also presented. For an easier comprehension and discussion 2D algorithms are described, whose concepts are extensible to 3D. An example related to the vesselness method applied to CE-CT is also illustrated.