Automatic segmentation of head structures on fetal MRI

Abstract

Recent improvements of fetal MRI acquisitions now allow three-dimensional segmentation of fetal structures, to extract bio-metrical measures for pregnancy follow-up. Automation of the segmentation process remains a difficult challenge, given the complexity of the fetal organs and their spatial organization. As a starting point, we propose in this paper a fully automated segmentation method to localize the eyes and segment the skull bone content (SBC). Priors, embedding contrast, morphological and bio-metrical information, are used to assist the segmentation process. A validation of the proposed segmentation method, on 24 MRI volumes of fetuses between 30 and 35 gestational weeks, demonstrated a high accuracy for eyes and SBC extraction.