Identification and Segmentation of Nuchal translucency region during the early stages of gestation using chan-vese segmentation

The most important markers used for the identification of Down syndrome (DS) is Nuchal translucency (NT) thickness. The NT scan is taken during the first trimester of pregnancy between 11-14 weeks of gestation. The amount of NT fluid is measured during NT Scan using an electronic caliper. Segmenting the NT region is an important task, and it is prone to weak edges and border discontinuity. To overcome this drawback, Image Segmentation techniques namely Region Growing, Chan-vese, and Level set are analysed and compared to extract the NT region accurately from an ultrasound image. From the comparative analysis, it is evident that Chan-vese works better than other techniques in segmenting the NT Region of Interest (ROI).