Methods of graph searching for border detection in image sequences with applications to cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

Automated border detection using graph searching principles has been shown useful for many biomedical imaging applications. Unfortunately, in an often unpredictable subset of images, automated border detection methods may fail. Most current edge detection methods fail to take into account the added information available in a temporal or spatial sequence of images that are commonly available in biomedical image applications. To utilize this information the authors extended their previously reported single frame graph searching method to include data from a sequence. The authors' method transforms the three-dimensional surface definition problem in a sequence of images into a two-dimensional problem so that traditional graph searching algorithms may be used. Additionally, the authors developed a more efficient method of searching the three-dimensional data set using heuristic search techniques which vastly improve execution time by relaxing the optimality criteria. The authors have applied both methods to detect myocardial borders in computer simulated images as well as in short-axis magnetic resonance images of the human heart. Preliminary results show that the new multiple image methods may be more robust in certain circumstances when compared to a single frame method and that the heuristic search techniques may reduce analysis times without compromising robustness.