A technique for the computation of lower leg muscle volume from MRI images in the context of venous return

Gearóid Olaighin; Barry J Broderick; Mary Clarke-Moloney; Fintan Wallis; Pierce A Grace

doi:10.1109/IEMBS.2007.4352449

A technique for the computation of lower leg muscle volume from MRI images in the context of venous return

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2007:2007:951-4. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2007.4352449.

Authors

Gearóid Olaighin¹, Barry J Broderick, Mary Clarke-Moloney, Fintan Wallis, Pierce A Grace

Affiliation

¹ Senior Member IEEE, Department of Electronic Engineering, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.

PMID: 18002115
DOI: 10.1109/IEMBS.2007.4352449

Abstract

A technique to automatically calculate the volume of a patient's calf muscle using MRI scans in the context of venous insufficiency is presented. Rather than giving a quantifiable measurement of volume, the technique provides a pixel count which can be used to compare the calf muscle volume of one leg of a patient against the other in the context of unilateral leg ulcers or to compare one patient's calf muscle volume against another patient. A custom MATLAB program reads the MRI scans (in the form of JPEG images) and determines the number of pixels (right and left limbs separately) that fall within a user defined gray-scale band, designated as being muscle. The output from the MATLAB program was compared with a manual counting method. The pixel counting algorithm was found to have an acceptable accuracy with results indicating a percentage difference from the manual method of between 2 and 9.5%.

MeSH terms

Blood Flow Velocity / physiology*
Humans
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods*
Imaging, Three-Dimensional / methods
Leg / blood supply*
Leg / physiology*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
Muscle, Skeletal / blood supply*
Muscle, Skeletal / physiology*
Organ Size / physiology
Regional Blood Flow / physiology
Veins / physiology*