Review of segmentation techniques for intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) images

Abstract

A specially designed instrument is the Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS). It is made up of tiny ultrasound probing device at the end part of the catheter. The blood vessels are visualized by using this system through ultrasonic visualization technique inside and also competent of viewing the diseased vessels and detecting the placement of the vessels also detecting and measuring length of the plaque present. IVUS is a well-organized technique for detecting coronary calcium. However IVUS has a drawback in measuring the calcium thickness, and in identifying the arc of the calcium layer. Thus the occurrence of the deposited plaque and calcium along the walls of coronary vessel is a sign of escemic heart diseases. In this paper, we are presenting some of the segmentation techniques that are used for the IVUS images. The techniques that are reviewed here are Fuzzy C-Means segmentation, Edge-Tracking and gradient-based techniques, The Circle Hough Transform technique are used for the detecting and measuring the size and arc of a calcium presented in IVUS image and by minimizing the error detection that are completed by the doctors during naked eye medical revision.