Automated fetal spine detection in ultrasound images

A novel method is proposed for the automatic detection of fetal spine in ultrasound images along with its orientation in this paper. This problem presents a variety of challenges, including robustness to speckle noise, variations in the visible shape of the spine due to orientation of the ultrasound probe with respect to the fetus and the lack of a proper edge enclosing the entire spine on account of its composition out of distinct vertebra. The proposed method improves robustness and accuracy by making use of two independent techniques to estimate the spine, and then detects the exact location using a cross-correlation approach. Experimental results show that the proposed method is promising for fetal spine detection.