Accessibility Enhancements for ITK-SNAP 3D Medical Image Segmentation Software

描述(申请人提供)：大脑结构和损伤的分割是神经科学中反复出现的问题。软件工具将先进的数学方法与设计良好、易于使用的人机界面相结合，可以帮助神经科医生在更短的时间内做出更准确的分割。ITK-SNAP是一个多平台的开源应用程序，它提供了一个直观的界面，用于使用活动轮廓方法对3D图像进行用户引导的分割，以及一组用于手动结构描绘和3D图像导航的支持界面。ITK-SNAP已经被证明比人工描述提高了分割的可靠性和效率，它已经帮助许多研究人员满足了他们的分割需求。ITK-SNAP可以通过其自己的互联网网站免费获得，该网站支持不断增长的用户社区。 这项提议的目的是通过改进ITK-SNAP的互操作性、可用性和文档，使更多的神经科学家能够接触到它。互操作性增强包括对NIFTI和DICOM图像格式的全面支持，特别强调正确解释以NIFTI和DICOM头编码的图像空间和患者空间之间的转换。建议的可用性增强包括一次加载和处理多个图像层的能力，允许同时分割多模式成像数据，分割扩散加权MRI中的白质结构，以及目前软件资源有限的其他分割应用。新的文档将描述几个场景，这些场景将ITK-SNAP与著名的神经成像工具(如SPM和Afni)相结合，以创建利用分段的面向任务的图像分析管道。 除了使ITK-SNAP更易于访问外，该提案还旨在将其与NIH神经成像信息学工具和资源信息中心(NITRC)整合。这一努力将有助于让更多的用户接触到该工具，并创建一个用户和开发人员可以在其中进行高效交互的环境，从而进一步增强互操作性和可用性。这一应用程序旨在改善ITK-SNAP的互操作性、可用性和文档编制，这是一款帮助神经解剖学家更快、更准确地描绘三维医学图像中的大脑结构和病变的软件应用程序。拟议的努力将使该工具更容易获得，并为更多的生物医学研究人员所用，从而对各种临床研究和干预程序的成本效益和准确性产生影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Segmentation of brain structures and lesions is a recurrent problem in neuroscience. Software tools that com- bine advanced mathematical methodology with well-designed easy-to-use human interfaces can help neurolo- gists produce more accurate segmentations in less time. ITK-SNAP is a multiplatform open source application that provides an intuitive interface for user-guided segmentation of 3D images using the active contour ap- proach, along with a set of supporting interfaces for manual structure delineation and 3D image navigation. ITK-SNAP has been demonstrated to improve segmentation reliability and efficiency over manual delineation and it is already helping many researchers meet their segmentation needs. ITK-SNAP is available freely through its own Internet site, which supports a growing user community. The objective of this proposal is to make ITK-SNAP accessible to a much wider audience of neuroscientists by making improvements to its interoperability, usability and documentation. Interoperability enhancements in- clude comprehensive support for the NIFTI and DICOM image formats, with a special emphasis on correct interpretation of the transformations between image space and patient space encoded in NIFTI and DICOM headers. Proposed usability enhancements include the ability to load and process multiple image layers at once, enabling concurrent segmentation of multi-modality imaging data, segmentation of white matter struc- tures in diffusion-weighted MRI, and other segmentation applications for which limited software resources exist today. New documentation will describe several scenarios that combine ITK-SNAP with prominent neuroimaging tools like SPM and AFNI to create task-oriented image analysis pipelines that leverage segmentation. In addition to making ITK-SNAP more accessible, this proposal aims to integrate it with the NIH Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse (NITRC). This effort will help expose many more users to the tool and create an environment in which users and developers can interact productively, leading to additional high-impact enhancements to interoperability and usability. This application proposes to improve the interoperability, usability and documentation of ITK-SNAP, a software application that helps neuroanatomists delineate brain structures and lesions in three-dimensional medical im- ages more quickly and more accurately. The proposed effort will make the tool more accessible and available to more biomedical researchers and, subsequently, will have an impact on the cost-efficiency and accuracy of various clinical studies and intervention procedures.