Figure 1

Image processing sequence and fractal analysis of left ventricular cine images. Example analysis of a single slice (a-2) out of a cine volumetric left ventricular stack, belonging to an LVNC case. Dashed line across the 4-chamber view marks the slice location (a-1). Automatic thresholding, binarization (a-3) and edge-detection (a-4) are followed by fractal analysis (b). In the box-counting method a series of grids of boxes of progressively smaller size are laid over the ROI and boxes containing detail are counted (b-5 to 9). The same set of grid calibres is applied to the ROI in four different orientations. In this pictorial representation, only 5 box sizes are shown but the complete analysis for this slice actually involves 55 box sizes. Each orientation generates a separate natural logarithmic plot of box-count (y axis) against scale (x axis, calculated from box/image size) (c). The slope of the line-of-best-fit across the points represents a FD. The mean value from the four plots is the slice FD. In this case, the straight line supports the existence of a fractal pattern. FD for this slice is 1.34. FD = fractal dimension; Ln = natural logarithm; LVNC = left ventricular noncompaction; ROI = region of interest.