Abstract：Segmentation of endocardium and epicardium from MR cardiac mage sequences is the most important prerequisite for computer aided cardiac function analysis. This paper proposes a new associated scheme for segmentation of endocardium and epicardium from MR cardiac image sequences. Firstly

segment the endocardium improved GACM

then propagate the segmented contour to other time frames. Secondly

using the segmented endocardium as the initialization contour

the curve is evolved with ad hoc designed regional balloon force controlled by the local mean gray level and the distance from endocardium to get epicardium. Experimental results on clinical ECG gated 4-D cardiac MR images are very close to the outlines medical experts manually. Left ventricle surface model can be reconstructed based on the segmentation results and some important clinical cardiac indices can be calculated.