Background:
In this paper, we propose a new efficient method of radionuclide ventriculography image
segmentation to estimate the left ventricular ejection fraction. This parameter is an important prognostic factor for
diagnosing abnormal cardiac function.
Methods:
The proposed method combines the Chan-Vese and the mathematical morphology algorithms. It was applied to
diastolic and systolic images obtained from the Nuclear Medicine Department of Salah AZAIEZ Institute.In order to
validate our proposed method, we compare the obtained results to those of two methods of the literature. The first one is
based on mathematical morphology, while the second one uses the basic Chan-Vese algorithm. To evaluate the quality of
segmentation, we compute accuracy, positive predictive value and area under the ROC curve. We also compare the left
ventricle ejection fraction estimated by our method to that of the reference given by the software of the gamma-camera
and validated by the expert, using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, ANOVA test and linear regression.
Results and conclusion:
Static results show that the proposed method is very efficient in the detection of the left ventricle.
The accuracy was 98.60%, higher than that of the other two methods (95.52% and 98.50%). Likewise, the positive
predictive value was the highest (86.40% vs. 83.63% 71.82%). The area under the ROC curve was also the most important
(0.998% vs. 0.926% 0.919%). On the other hand, Pearson's correlation coefficient was the highest (99% vs. 98% 37%).
The correlation was significantly positive (p<0.001).
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