Adoption of Snake Variable Model-Based Method in Segmentation and Quantitative Calculation of Cardiac Ultrasound Medical Images

Abstract

This paper intends to explore the effect of the enhanced snake variable model in the segmentation of cardiac ultrasound images and its adoption in quantitative measurement of cardiac cavity. First, the basic principles of the traditional snake model and the gradient vector flow (GVF) snake model are explained. Then, an ellipsoid model is constructed to obtain the initial contour of the heart based on the three-dimensional volume of cardiac ultrasound image, and a discretized triangular mesh model is generated. Finally, the vortical gradient vector flow (VGVF) external force field is introduced and combined with the greedy algorithm to process the deformation of the initial ellipsoid contour of the heart. The segmentation effect is quantitatively evaluated regarding the area overlap rate (AOR) and the mean contour distance (MCD). The results show that the VGVF snake model can segment the deep recessed area of the “U-shaped map” in contrast to the traditional snake model and the GVF snake model. After being applied to ultrasonic image segmentation, the VGVF snake model obtains the segmentation result that is close to the doctor’s manual segmentation result, and the average AOR and MCD are 97.4% and 3.2, respectively. The quantitative evaluation of the cardiac cavity is carried out based on the segmentation results, and the measurement of the volume change of the left ventricle within a cardiac cycle is realized. To sum up, VGVF snake model is superior to the traditional snake and GVF snake models in terms of ultrasonic image segmentation, which realizes the three-dimensional segmentation and quantitative calculation of the cardiac cavity.