Fully-automated analysis of muscle fiber images with combined region and edge based active contours

Abstract: This paper presents a new approach to automated muscle fiber analysis based on segmenting myofibers with combined region and edge based active contours. It provides reliable and fully-automated processing, thus, enabling time-saving batch processing of the entire biopsy sample stemming from routinely HE-stained cryostat sections. The method combines color, texture, and edge cues in a level set based active contour model succeeded by a refinement with morphological filters. False-positive segmentations as compared to former methods are minimized. A quantitative comparison between manual and automated analysis of muscle fibers images did not reveal any significant differences.