COMPUTER AIDED DIAGNOSIS OF HUMAN FOOT'S BONES

ABSTRACT Segmentation in Computerized Tomography (CT) images of human extremities particularly for a tissue of interest is a difficult task in medical image processing. Human operator interventions require at times when an automatic segmentation method fails and gives incorrect results. This is often true in medical image processing where segmentation is difficult due to the restrictions imposed by image acquisition, pathology and biological tissue variations. Initially the CT scanning of a normal male adult volunteer foot done and acquisition of CT scan data set completed and a manual procedure for segmenting bone tissues was adopted. The segmentation carried out slice-by-slice on 88 CT image slices in Materialise’s Interactive Medical Image Control System (MIMICS) software. This finally gives a three dimensional (3D) representation of a human foot skeletal. This specific skeletal 3D foot representation provides its prototype realization and helps in determining the shape and size of foot’s bones along with joints geometries by observing relationships between different bones. The 3D representation of talus bone of foot provides an opportunity to view talus and analyze the ankle joint geometry that develops a favorable condition for diagnosis and treatment of a historical CTEV foot deformity also known as clubfoot. This 3D foot representation also helps orthopaedic surgeons in preoperative surgical planning and consequently in carrying out biomechanics studies. It also provides a platform for finite element analysis