Region based techniques for segmentation of volumetric histo-pathological images

In this article we have presented the application of three region based segmentation techniques namely, seeded volume growing, constrained erosion-dilation techniques and 3-D watershed algorithm. The algorithms are suitably extended to apply on 3-D histo-pathological images. Suitable modifications and extension for each algorithm is done to obtain better segmentation. A quantitative as well as qualitative comparison of the three methods is presented. Modifications to these algorithms for obtaining better results are discussed. The modifications include, (1) design of adaptive similarity measures to control the seeded volume growing and (2) rule-based merging of the over-segmented cells in the case of the 3-D watershed algorithm. Some results and quantitative study is also presented. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.