Medical image segmentation with deformable models on graphics processing units

Abstract

In this work, the parallel implementation of a segmentation algorithm based on the gradient vector flow (GVF) deformable model in a graphics processing unit (GPU) is presented. The proposed implementation focuses on the parallelization of the computation of the GVF field. In order to make a performance comparison of the proposed GPU algorithm, an OpenMP-based implementation is presented too. We also present an analysis of the textures and global memory performance in the computing of the GVF field. To improve the efficiency and the performance of the active contour segmentation, a novel snaxel reallocation method is proposed. The main advantage of the reallocation process is the small linear system needed to perform the segmentation and its low computational load. To assure the convergence of the active contour deformation, we propose a stopping criterion based on the root mean square error for the iterative solution of the evolution equations.