1. Segmentation and Visualization of Intervertebral Discs Preliminary Presentation Eyal Bar-Kochba ENGN2500: Medical Imaging April 12 th, 2011

2. The Roadmap To Intervertebral Disc Segmentation DeadlineGoals First Presentation Gather data from literature and class MR data. Begin developing the algorithm for 2D segmentation of intervertebral discs. Mid Presentation Continue working on the algorithm for 2D segmentation of intervertebral discs. Obtain oblique MRI images from Doug. Final Presentation Finalize the 2D segmentation algorithm and compare it to hand drawn segmentations. Construct a 3D isosurface by stacking the 2D segmentations and compare to V3D software.

3. A Primer On Intervertebral Discs Anatomy of the Spine T2-weighted MR sagittal image ● Normal Disc ● Degenerated intervertebral disc with disc herniation

4. Why Segmentation Is Not So Simple. Zoomed T2-weighted MR sagittal image Segmentation issues: ♦ Gray-level overlapping of the nucleus pulposus and vertebrae with gray-level overlapping. ● Gray-level overlapping of the annulus fibrosus, anterior longitudinal ligament, and vascular tissue. ▲ Blurring due to the partial volume effect.

5. Segmentation Using Atlas-FCM Segmentation method proposed by S.K. Michopoulou, et al. (2008)

6. Segmentation Using Atlas-FCM Segmentation examples using Atlas- FCM [S.K. Michopoulou, et al. (2008)]

7. 3D Reconstruction of Segmented Images Assign unique values to images outside of boundary. Import data into tecplot and plot isosurface. Compare data with segmentation produced by V3D. Samples of V3D Visualization [H. Peng, et al. (2011)]