Automatic Segmentation of Vasculature in DCE-MRI of Brain Tumors and its Influence in Grading

Quantitative DCE-MRI parameters are sensitive to tumor microvasculature and have shown potential in tumor grading. Generally, value of some of these parameters increases with tumor grades. During analysis of tumor region, large-blood-vessels (LBV) can influence the actual changes due to tumor microvasculature and hence provide erroneous results. Objectives of this study were to develop an automatic framework for segmentation of the LBV present within and outside of the tumor region and to reduce errors in tumor grading. The statistical analysis of parameters in tumor region showed significant differences between with and without LBV. Moreover, LBV removal improved tumor classification accuracy.