Improved approach to boundary location in two-dimensional echocardiographic images

The widespread utilisation of digital two-dimensional echocardiography has led to an increasing interest in the possibility of automated analysis of the images using this technique. For quantitative analysis of cardiac function the detection of the endocardium and epicardium is of considerable importance yet, particularly in certain key views, most conventional edge finding algorithms can be easily undermined because of the poor quality of the images and the appearance of irrelevant structures within the viewing area. The authors describe a new approach to boundary detection which, while based principally on a radial search technique, extends the conventional analysis through the addition of further contour analysis in two preprocessed images. The algorithms are described in detail and results are presented to illustrate the advantageous features of the approach proposed.