Automated measurement of carotid angle with use of CT images

Abstract

Carotid stenosis is an important etiological factor in the forming of ischemic stroke. The weight of stroke which is formed as a result of extracranial internal carotid artery stenosis or occlusion differs according to the location, size of interaction, collateral supply, and the mechanisms those cause interact. Therefore, it is important to measure the narrowness of the carotid with the calculation of the bifurcation angle. In this study, CT cross-sectional image sequences are used. The images are unsupervised classified, and the carotid veins are identified with the boundaries and centers of the clusters. Then, the angles are calculated with three center points of the veins from successive images. The center point of the calculation is from the vein which has the maximum area difference between one of the successive images. The results are evaluated using 5 samples with visual interpretation regarding the position and the correctness of the three successive images which have maximum area jump.

Keywords

• Medical Image Processing
• Photogrammetry
• CT
• Neurology
• Stroke

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