Study On Morphological Characteristics Of The Bile Duct Based On MRCP Images

Cholangiolithiasis,known as bile duct stone,is one of common biliary tract diseases in China.However,few image-processing methods have been reported for the morphology of the bile duct.This limits the quantitative image analysis of the bile duct for the accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of the cholangiolithiasis.In this thesis,a method to quantify the morphological characteristics of the bile duct in MRCP images was proposed,and the relationship between the image characteristics and the image findings was investigated.The main work of the thesis was summarized as follows:(1)Considering the shortcomings of manual measurement,a scheme was presented,in which the center line of the bile duct was used to obtain the morphological characteristics of the bile duct.In the scheme,MRCP images were used as materials,three-dimensional bile duct center line was extracted by using image processing,and morphological characteristics,such as the length,radius,three-dimensional curvature,were calculated.The scheme was applied to 26 cholangiolithiasis cases to obtain their morphological characteristics,and the characteristics were compared with the corresponding statistics in the literature.Experiment results showed that the scheme for obtaining the morphological characteristics of the bile duct was feasible and effective.(2)To investigate the relationship between the quantitative bile duct morphological characteristics and the clinical data of cholangiolithiasis patients,statistical analysis was performed.By using t-test and boxplot,correlation and regression analyses were conducted between the quantitative morphological characteristics and patients'information,the imaging diagnoses.The results showed that the length,radius and curvature of the bile duct were correlated with the patients' age,sex,and the missed diagnoses of imaging tests.A methodology for quantitative characteristic analysis of the bile duct was developed and the relationship between the morphological characteristics and the clinical data of cholangiolithiasis patients,the miss diagnosis was investigated in this thesis.Results showed that the methodology was promising and further investigation was necessary towards the computer-aided diagnosis of cholangiolithiasis in MRCP images.