4D MR phase and magnitude segmentations with GPU parallel computing

The increasing size and number of data sets of large four dimensional (three spatial, one temporal) magnetic resonance (MR) cardiac images necessitates efficient segmentation algorithms. Analysis of phase-contrast MR images yields cardiac flow information which can be manipulated to produce accurate segmentations of the aorta. Phase contrast segmentation algorithms are proposed that use simple mean-based calculations and least mean squared curve fitting techniques. The initial segmentations are generated on a multi-threaded central processing unit (CPU) in 10 seconds or less, though the computational simplicity of the algorithms results in a loss of accuracy. A more complex graphics processing unit (GPU)-based algorithm fits flow data to Gaussian waveforms, and produces an initial segmentation in 0.5 seconds. Level sets are then applied to a magnitude image, where the initial conditions are given by the previous CPU and GPU algorithms. A comparison of results shows that the GPU algorithm appears to produce the most accurate segmentation.