Current methods in the automatic tissue segmentation of 3D magnetic resonance brain images

Accurate segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain is of interest in the study of many brain disorders. In this paper, we provide a review of some of the current approaches in the tissue segmentation of MR brain images. We broadly divided current MR brain image segmentation algorithms into three categories: classification-based, region-based, and contour-based, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches. We also briefly review our recent work in this area. We show that by incorporating two key ideas into the conventional fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm, we are able to take into account the local spatial context and compensate for the intensity nonuniformity (INU) artifact during the clustering process. We conclude this review by pointing to some possible future directions in this area. © 2006 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.