Left ventricular segmentation in MRI images

We present an original method for segmentation of the left ventricle from time varying cross-sectional slices. This segmentation method is based on a split and merge algorithm. The endocardial and the epicardial contours in the first image of the sequence are drawn manually, the other contours of the sequence are computed automatically. This algorithm integrates the topological and geometrical characteristics of the left ventricle over time. This method is robust despite noise, artifacts and time varying contrast.