VASCULAR ANATOMY MODELING DERIVED FROM 3-DIMENSIONAL MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING

摘要

Systems and methods to develop a vascular model of vascular trees that are captured with 3-Dimensional medical imaging data of a subject. Image processing iteratively traverses vessel image segments within the imaging data and creates a vessel model defined within a data structure that defines branch segments and bifurcation points where those branch segments split. The model generation algorithms incorporate strategies and parameters to identify and repair falsely identified bifurcations that reflect false inter-tree and intra-tree connections that can appear when processing images with complicated vessel trees. Accurate traversal of the vessel tree as portrayed in 3-Dimensional medical images is emphasized to correctly label branch generations and identify and repair erroneous interconnections between adjacent trees.

主权项

1. A method for characterizing vascular anatomy depicted in 3-dimensional medical images, the method comprising:
performing the following with a processor: iteratively identifying, based on traversing identified image elements within 3-Dimensional medical image data, respective identified branch segments within a plurality of identified branch segments of at least one vessel tree; identifying, based on the traversing and the iteratively identifying respective identified branch segments, a plurality of identified bifurcation points, wherein each identified bifurcation point comprises at least a second identified branch segment splitting from the respective branch segment being traversed; determining a respective radius of each respective identified branch segment at points along the respective identified branch segment; identifying, at each respective candidate bifurcation point, a respective upstream identified branch segment and at least two respective downstream identified branch segments, wherein a respective radius of the respective upstream identified branch segment is greater than a respective radius of each of the at least two respective downstream branch segments; and defining, based on the iteratively identifying respective identified branch segments, on the identifying the plurality of identified bifurcation points, and on the respective upstream identified branch segment, a vascular tree model corresponding to the plurality of identified branch segments and the plurality of identified bifurcation points.