METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING AN ESTIMATION OF A TOPOLOGICAL SUPPORT OF A TUBULAR STRUCTURE AND USE THEREOF IN VIRTUAL ENDOSCOPY

摘要

A method for determining an estimation of a topological support of a tubular based structure comprising an inner wall and a plurality of distinct regions, the method comprising (a) obtaining image data representative of the tubular based structure; (b) placing an initial seed in an initial region selected from one of the distinct regions; (c) performing an initial region growing until an initial resulting area comprises at least a portion of the inner wall and at least a portion of a neighboring region corresponding to one of the distinct regions; (d) starting a tree comprising an initial tree node corresponding to the initial region; (e) for each neighboring region: placing a subsequent seed in the neighboring region; performing a corresponding subsequent region growing until a subsequent resulting area comprises at least a portion of the inner wall and at least a portion of an additional neighboring region; and adding a tree node corresponding to the neighboring region in the tree; (f) performing processing step (e) for each of the additional neighboring regions; and (g) filtering the tree according to predetermined topological parameters to thereby determine the estimation of the topological support of the tubular based structure. Applications of the method for estimating a colon topology for virtual colonoscopy are also disclosed.