Brain Tumor Volume Calculation : Segmentation and Visualization Using MR Images

Sammanfattning: Background: Glioblastomas are highly aggressive and malignant brain tumors which are difficult to resect totally. The surgical extent of resection constitutes a key role due to its direct influence on the patient’s survival time. To determine the resection extent, the tumor volume on pre-operative and post-operative magnetic resonance (MR) images should be calculated and compared. Materials and Methods: An active contour segmentation method was implemented to segment glioblastoma brain tumors on pre-operative T1-contrast enhanced MR images in axial, coronal and sagittal planes by self-developed software. The volume was rendered from the tumor  contours using Delaunay triangulation. Besides the segmentation and volume rendering, a graphical user interface was developed to facilitate the rendering, visualization and volume calculation of the brain tumor. The software was implemented in MATLAB (version 7.2). Two MR image data sets from glioblastoma patients were used and the repeatability and reproducibility of volume calculation was tested. Dimensions of the calculated tumor volume were then compared to the dimensions obtained in Amira® software. Results: The tumor volumes for data set 1 and data set 2 were 62.7 and 39.0 cm3, respectively. When tumor was segmented by different users (n=4), the volumes were 62.5 ± 0.3 and 42.6 ± 3.5 cm3. Segmentation errors were seen during the segmentation of data set 2. Mainly under- and over-segmentation due to hypointense MR signals caused by cerebrospinal fluid, or hyperintense MR signals caused by skull bone and weak tumor boundaries led to wrong segmentation results. Conclusion: Segmentation using active contours method is able to detect the brain tumor boundaries. The volume rendering and visualization allows the user to explore the tumor tissue and its surrounding interactively. Using the software, tumor volume is precisely calculated.