Mesh-based approach for the 3D analysis of anatomical structures of interest in Radiotherapy

In this paper a method based on mesh surfaces approximations for the 3D analysis of anatomical structures in Radiotherapy (RT) is presented. Parotid glands meshes constructed from Megavoltage CT (MVCT) images were studied in terms of volume, distance between center of mass (distCOM) of the right and left parotids, dice similarity coefficient (DICE), maximum distance between meshes (DMax) and the average symmetric distance (ASD). A comparison with the standard binary images approach was performed. While absence of significant differences in terms of volume, DistCOM and DICE indices suggests that both approaches are comparable, the fact that the ASD showed significant difference (p=0.002) and the DMax was almost significant (p=0.053) suggests that the mesh approach should be adopted to provide accurate comparison between 3D anatomical structures of interest in RT. © 2012 IEEE.

3D analysis; Anatomical structures; Center of mass; Maximum distance; Megavoltage CT; Mesh approach; Mesh surface; Parotid glands; Similarity coefficients; Radiotherapy; Three dimensional computer graphics; Three dimensional; algorithm; article; audiovisual equipment; computer assisted diagnosis; computer assisted radiotherapy; computer assisted tomography; computer simulation; human; image processing; information processing; methodology; observer variation; parotid gland; pathology; radiography; radiotherapy; signal processing; statistical model; three dimensional imaging; Algorithms; Automatic Data Processing; Computer Simulation; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Imaging, Three-Dimensional; Models, Anatomic; Models, Statistical; Observer Variation; Parotid Gland; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Radiotherapy; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

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