Lumbar disk 3D modeling from limited number of MRI axial slices

Asma’a Al-Mnayyis (Yarmouk University)
Sanaa Abu Alasal (Jordan University of Science and Technology)
Mohammad Alsmirat (Jordan University of Science and Technology)
Qanita Bani Baker (Jordan University of Science and Technology)
Shadi AlZu’bi (Al Zaytoonah University of Jordan)

International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Vol 10, No 4: August 2020

This paper studies the problem of clinical MRI analysis in the field of lumbar intervertebral disk herniation diagnosis. It discusses the possibility of assisting radiologists in reading the patients MRI images by constructing a 3D model for the region of interest using simple computer vision methods. We use axial MRI slices of the lumbar area. The proposed framework works with a very small number of MRI slices and goes through three main stages. Namely, the region of interest extraction and enhancement, inter-slice interpolation, and 3D model construction. We use the Marching Cubes algorithm to construct the 3D model of the the region of interest. The validation of our 3D models is based on a radiologist’s analysis of the models. We tested the proposed 3D model construction on 83 cases and We have a 95% accuracy according to the radiologist evaluation. This study shows that 3D model construction can greatly ease the task of the radiologist which enhances the working experience. This leads eventually to more accurate and easy diagnosis process.