A METHOD FOR TRACKING 3D ANATOMICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES IN TUBULAR-SHAPED ANATOMICAL STRUCTURES

摘要

A method for visualizing the anatomy of a region of interest of a tubular-shaped organ based on acquired three-dimensional image slices of the region of interest. Prior to segmentation, reference markers are positioned interactively in the image slices, a minimum curvature path connecting the reference markers is automatically extracted and cross-sectional images are interpolated along a plane normal to a tangent vector of the minimum curvature path. A segmented area corresponding to the region of interest is then delimited in each cross-sectional image and, using this segmented area, a three-dimensional surface representation of the region of interest is computed to readily quantify attributes, such as a maximal diameter and a volume, of the region of interest. When the image sets are acquired in different imaging geometries, the image sets may further be co-registered prior to segmentation, resulting in image sets superimposed in the same geometrical reference frame.