A new approach to measuring tortuosity

Amanda Wert; Sherry E. Scott

doi:10.1117/12.912416

23 February 2012 A new approach to measuring tortuosity

Amanda Wert, Sherry E. Scott

Proceedings Volume 8315, Medical Imaging 2012: Computer-Aided Diagnosis; 83153I (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.912416
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2012, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The detection and measurement of the tortuosity - i.e. the bending and winding - of vessels has been shown to be potentially useful in the assessment of cancer progression and treatment response. Although several metrics for tortuosity are used, no single one measure is able to capture all types of tortuosity. This report presents a new multiscale technique for measuring vessel tortuosity. The approach is based on a method - called the ergodicity defect - which gives a scale-dependent measure of deviation from ergodicity. Ergodicity is a concept that captures the manner in which trajectories or signals sample the space; thus, ergodicity and vessel tortuosity both involve the notion of how a signal samples space. Here we begin to explore this connection. We first apply the ergodicity defect tortuosity measure to both 2D and 3D synthetic data in order to demonstrate the response of the method to three types of tortuosity observed in clinical patterns. We then implement the technique on segmented vessels extracted from brain tumor MRA images. Results indicate that the method can be effectively used to detect and measure several types of vessel tortuosity.

Citation Download Citation

Amanda Wert and Sherry E. Scott "A new approach to measuring tortuosity", Proc. SPIE 8315, Medical Imaging 2012: Computer-Aided Diagnosis, 83153I (23 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.912416

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available