Integrated approach for segmentation of 3-D confocal images of a tissue specimen

In this article we have proposed an integrated approach for segmentation of cells in volumetric image data obtained using the Confocal Microscope. The volumetric images are the stack of two-dimensional (2-D) images. Segmentation of cells in such an image stack is a difficult problem due to the complex structure of the objects and the spatial relationship of the object signatures in different image slices of the image stack. Here we have proposed a segmentation technique, which is a combination of several known and novel segmentation methods. Low-level techniques such as edge operators, middle-level techniques such as 3-D watershed, rule-based merging, and a high level technique, active surface model optimization, are integrated in one approach to get better segmentation with less human interaction. Some image enhancement and noise reduction techniques are also used to reduce the error in intermediate stages and speed up the segmentation process. Results are shown on 3-D images of prostate cancer tissue specimen. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.