Tubular structures segmentation of pediatric abdominal-visceral ceCT images with renal tumors: Assessment, comparison and improvement

Renal tubular structures, such as ureters, arteries and veins, are very important for building a complete digital 3D anatomical model of a patient. However, they can be challenging to segment from ceCT images due to their elongated shape, diameter variation and intra- and inter-patient contrast heterogeneity. This task is even more difficult in pediatric and pathological subjects, due to high inter-subject anatomical variations, potential presence of tumors, small volume of these structures compared to the surrounding, and small available labeled datasets.