Preserving Anatomical Continuity: Three-Stage Pipeline for Colon Segmentation in 3D Abdominal CT Scans
Organizations: School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia · Sydney Adventist Hospital, Wahroonga, Australia
Abstract
Accurate colon segmentation from CT images is essential for colorectal disease analysis, yet deep learning based methods often produce disconnected predictions due to complex anatomy. This study introduces a three-stage, topology-preserving segmentation pipeline to address this issue. The first stage performs initial deep learning-based segmentation, followed by centreline bridging to reconnect disjoint regions and a reconstruction stage to refine continuity. Evaluations on TotalSegmentator and RAOS datasets using overlap, distance and topology-based metrics demonstrate improved structural consistency while maintaining segmentation accuracy. The proposed method enhances topological integrity, enabling more reliable colon segmentation for clinical and research applications.
Figures & tables
| UNet Variant | TotalSegmentator | RAOS |
| nnUNet | 0.9308±0.0631 | 0.8847±0.0706 |
| BowelNet | 0.9041±0.0848 | 0.8457±0.0929 |
| VNet | 0.8882±0.0889 | 0.8348±0.0797 |
| UNet++ | 0.9118±0.0722 | 0.8594±0.0735 |
| SwinUNeTR | 0.8701±0.0931 | 0.8513±0.0741 |
| UNetTR | 0.8678±0.0892 | 0.8200±0.0803 |
3D Medical Image Segmentation
3D Medical Image Segmentation identifies organs, lesions, and fine structures in volumetric scans for measurement and clinical planning.
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