3D Segmentation of the Left Ventricle combining Long- and Shortaxis Views

Segmentation of the left ventricle (LV) is required to quantify LV remodeling after myocardial infarction. Therefore spatiotemporal Cine MR sequences including longaxis and shortaxis images are acquired. In this paper a new segmentation method for fast and robust segmentation of the left ventricle is presented. The new approach considers the position of the mitral valve and the apex as well as the longaxis contours to generate a 3D LV surface model. The segmentation result can be checked and adjusted in the shortaxis images. Finally quantitative parameters were extracted. For evaluation the LV was segmented in eight datasets of the same subject by two medical experts using a contour drawing tool and the new segmentation tool. The results of both methods were compared concerning interaction time and intra- and interobserver variance. The presented segmentation method proved to be fast. The intra- and interobserver variance is decreased for all extracted parameters.