Method for performing segmentation of an interior vessel within the body
of a patient, the method including obtaining a sequence of intravascular
ultrasound images of an interior vessel and dividing the sequence into
batches, detecting uninformative regions in each of the batches, the
uninformative regions arising from an acoustic shadow cast by guide wire
and by calcified plaque within the interior vessel, extracting a
preliminary outer boundary of the interior vessel, tracking images in
each of the batches to counter various distortions, performing
statistical analysis and spatial integration on each of the batches to
obtain a classification of blood and tissue regions, extracting a
secondary outer boundary of the interior vessel utilizing the
classification of blood and tissue regions and refining result, and
extracting the inner boundary of the interior vessel based on the
classification of blood and tissue regions.