Evaluation of Morphology Descriptors in CT images of the Aorta as Indicators of the Presence of Plaque

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Date
2009-11
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Indiana University South Bend
Abstract
This study compared the ability of six image descriptors, characterizing the morphology and elasticity of the descending aorta, to identify computed tomography (CT) images which contain visual indications of plaque. This thesis is based on the hypothesis that regions of plaque distort the normal lumen shape resulting in corresponding changes in the CT image. This, in turn, allows the inference of the presence of plaque by identifying deviations in the smoothness, symmetry, or circularity of the lumen border or by measurements that allow for an estimate of the elastic properties of the arterial wall. The project method included manually locating the descending aorta from a CT dataset, segmenting the lumen in each candidate slice, and computing descriptors from the resulting images. The descriptors computed are the lumen circularity, lumen centroid displacement, the area difference between the smallest enclosing circle and the lumen border, and the fractal dimension of the lumen border. In addition, the percentage expansion in lumen area and the dispersion of the lumen centroid were compared at the 0% and 40% gating in the R-R interval during the cardiac cycle. An assessment of the ability of each descriptor to identify the image slices containing potential plaque is included. The descriptors were measured against a reference set of images which were visually classified by domain experts. While each of the calculated descriptors was shown to have some merit, the circularity and the area difference between the smallest enclosing circle and the lumen border demonstrated the best individual performances in discriminating between the plaque and non-plaque images. The overall best predictive model was found by combining the strengths of the two descriptors.
Description
Thesis (M.A) -- Indiana University South Bend, 2009.
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Research Subject Categories::TECHNOLOGY, Heart--Tomography., Atherosclerotic plaque--Imaging., Dissertations, Academic--Indiana--South Bend., Indiana University South Bend--Dissertations.
Citation
Gordon, S.L. (2009) Evaluation of morphology descriptors in CT images of the aorta as indicators of the presence of plaque (Unpublished master’s thesis). Indiana University South Bend, South Bend, Indiana.
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Thesis