Segmentation is one of the crucial steps in applications of medical diagnosis. The accurate image segmentation method plays an important role in proper detection of disease, staging, diagnosis, radiotherapy treatment planning and monitoring. In the advances of image segmentation techniques, joint segmentation of PET-CT images has increasingly received much attention in the field of both clinic and image processing. PET - CT images have become a standard method for tumor delineation and cancer assessment. Due to low spatial resolution in PET and low contrast in CT images, automated segmentation of tumor in PET - CT images is a well-known puzzle task. This paper attempted to describe and review four innovative methods used in the joint segmentation of functional and anatomical PET - CT images for tumor delineation. For the basic knowledge, the state of the art image segmentation methods were briefly reviewed and fundamental of PET and CT images were briefly explained. Further, the specific characteristics and limitations of four joint segmentation methods were critically discussed.
Automatic and Reliable Segmentation of Spinal Canals in Low-Resolution, Low-Contrast CT Images