Abstract
In a computerised ultrasound image guidance for automated prostatectomy system, it is necessary to identify a smooth, continuous contour for the prostate (boundary) from the ultrasound image. The radial bas-relief (RBR) method, which has been reported previously, can extract a skeletonised image from an ultrasound image automatically. After this process the prostate boundary is clearly revealed. However, analysis of the image is far from complete, as there are many spurious branches that create too much ambiguity for the system to define the actual boundary. There are also sections missing from the prostate boundary. Therefore further post-processing is required to describe and define the prostate boundary. In the paper, the harmonics method is used to describe the prostate boundary. The harmonics method uses Fourier information for noise removal and encodes a smooth boundary. The results of using the harmonics method after application of the RBR method on ultrasound images are presented. Factors that affect the performance are also highlighted and discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
BioScan Optimas (1992): ‘User guide & technical reference, 5th Edition’. BioScan OPTIMAS, Washington
Chakraborty, A., Staib, L. H., andDuncan, J. S. (1994): ‘An integrated approach to boundary finding in medical images’. Proc. IEEE Workshop on Biomedical image analysis, June 24–25, Seattle, Washington, pp. 13–22
Liu, Y.J., Ng, W. S., Teo, M. Y. andLim, H. C. (1997): ‘Computerised prostate boundary estimation of ultrasound images using radial bas-relief method’.Med. Biol. Eng. Comput.,35, (5), pp. 445–454
Liu, Y. J. (1997): ‘Computerised ultrasound image guidance for automated prostatectomy’. Master thesis, NTU, Singapore
McDougal, W. S., andSkerrett, P. J. (1996): ‘Prostate disease’ (Times Books, New York)
Ng, W.S., Davies, B. L., Hibberd, R. D., andTimoney, A. G. (1993): ‘Robotic surgery: a first-hand experience In transurethral resection of the prostate’,IEEE Eng. Med. Biol., March, pp. 120–125
Staib, L. H., andDuncan, J. S. (1989): ‘Parametrically deformable contour models’.IEEE Proc., pp. 98–103
Staib, L. H., andDuncan, J. S. (1992): ‘Boundary finding with parametrically deformable models’,IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell.,14, (11), pp. 1061–1075
Sun, Y. N., Chang, J. C., andYao, W. J. (1994): ‘Three-dimensional reconstruction of kidney from ultrasound images’. Proc. IEEE Workshop on Biomedical image analysis, June 24–25, Seattle, Washington, pp. 43–49
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kwoh, C.K., Teo, M.Y., Ng, W.S. et al. Outlining the prostate boundary using the harmonics method. Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. 36, 768–771 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02518882
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02518882