Segmentation of medical ultrasound images based on level set method with edge representing mask

Abstract

This paper presents a new extended Chan-Vese level set method for ultrasound image segmentation. The proposed method introduces wavelet multiresolution analysis to create an edge representing mask to spot edge information of the image. While the evolution of the level set function, average edge energy of zero level set curve is calculated from the edge representing mask to control the evolving speed. The proposed method has some advantages compared with traditional Chan-Vese method as follows. First, the proposed method is robust to the inherent speckle noise in ultrasound images. Second, the method is sensitive to intensity inhomogeneity of objects in images. Third, the method can solve the segmentation of ultrasound images with weak or missing boundaries. We apply the proposed method to synthetic and medical ultrasound images, and the results suggest that this method is superior to the traditional Chan-Vese level set method.