Three Different Strategies for Real-Time Prostate Capsule Volume Computation from 3-D End-Fire Transrectal Ultrasound

Estimation of prostate capsule volume via segmentation of the prostate from 3-D ultrasound volumetric ultrasound images is a valuable clinical tool, especially during biopsy. Normally, a physician traces the boundaries of the prostate manually, but this process is tedious, laborious, and subject to errors. The prostate capsule edge is computed using three different strategies: (a) least square approach, (b) level set approach, and (c) discrete dynamic contour approach. (a) In the least square method, edge points are defined by searching for the optimal edge based on the average signal characteristics. These edge points constitute an initial curve which is later refined; (b) Level set approach. The images are modeled as piece-wise constant, and the energy functional is defined and minimized. This method is also automated; and (c) the discrete dynamic contour (DDC). A trained user selects several points in the first image and an initial contour is obtained by a model based initialization. Based on this initialization condition, the contour is deformed automatically to better fit the image. This method is semi-automatic. The three methods were tested on database consisting of 15 prostate phantom volumes acquired using a Philips ultrasound machine using an end-fire TRUS. The ground truth (GT) is developed by tracing the boundary of prostate on a slice-by-slice basis. The mean volumes using the least square, level set and DDC techniques were 15.84 cc, 15.55 cc and 16.33 cc, respectively. We validated the methods by calculating the volume with GT and we got an average volume of 15.68 cc. The overall system is real time and implemented in Windows OS.