Three-Dimensional Segmentation and Visualization of Cerebral Arteries and Veins from Simultaneously Acquired MRA and MRV based on Graph-Cuts and Vessel Enhancement Filter

Introduction Accurate segmentation and appropriate visualization of the arteries and veins in the brain improve the detection and characterization of vascular abnormality such as cerebral aneurysm, arteriovenous malformation and tumor vascularity. Traditional 2D projection display of vascular images such as minimum-intensity projection (minIP) of veins in MRV offers limited visualization of complex vascular structures in the brain. This limitation becomes more problematic when we desire to display both the arteries and veins together that are acquired simultaneously from newly-introduced compatible dual-echo arteriovenography (CODEA). Thus, we propose a new 3D segmentation method to segment the arteries and veins from MRA and MRV in the brain, respectively, using a graph-cuts technique [2] and a vessel enhancement filter [3] and then display the arteries and veins together in 3D.