Multiview active appearance models for simultaneous segmentation of cardiac 2-and 4-chamber long-axis magnetic resonance images

Rationale and Objectives: Long-axis cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) views enable a rapid, online evaluation of cardiac function from only 2 views. In this article, we aimed to evaluate a model-based method for the simultaneous detection of 2- and 4-chamber endocardial and epicardial contours in end-diastolic and end-systolic phases of MR images. Methods: We introduce multiview Active Appearance Models for the automated segmentation of long-axis cardiac MR images of the left ventricle. Two modes of initialization were used to test the accuracy of the model with minimal user interaction and the best-obtainable accuracy with this model. The segmentation was initialized by annotating 2 points in the base and one in the apex. We tested the method's performance by comparing the point-to-curve errors, ejection fractions, and biplane area-length volumes calculated with the automatically detected contours to those calculated from contours that were annotated manually by experts. Leave-one-out experiments were performed with 2- and 4-chamber long axis MR images of 59 subjects in end-diastolic and end-systolic phases. Results: When initializing in all 4 frames, 97% of the segmentations were successful, and the standard deviation in the volume-errors with respect to the average manually identified volume was 9.0% for the end-diastolic volumes and 15% for the end-systolic volumes. When the method was initialized in the end-systolic frames only, 92% of the segmentations were successful, and the standard deviation in the errors in the volumes with respect to the average manually identified volume was 13.3% for the end-diastolic volumes and 16.7% for the end-systolic volumes. Bland-Altman plots showed that the errors were distributed randomly around 0, and by using a paired t test comparing manual and computer-determined volumes, we were able to detect that the volume differences were not significant. Simultaneous detection of the endocardial and epicardial contours in 2- and 4-chamber views and end-diastolic and end-systolic phases for one subject takes approximately 3 seconds. Conclusions: The accuracy of the reported method is comparable with the interobserver variability for initialization in all frames and slightly worse than the interobserver variability with initialization in the end-systolic frames only. However, in both cases the errors were not significant. Initialization in end-systolic frames only leads to a statistically insignificantly lower model accuracy; however, it requires only half the user interaction. Therefore, we can conclude that this method enables rapid analysis of the cardiac left ventricular function with little user interaction.