Patent ID: 8073227
Filing Date: 2011-12-06
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method of extracting a centerline of a tubular structure in a digital medical image, the method performed by the computer comprising the steps of: providing a 3-dimensional (3D) digitized medical image, said image comprising a plurality of intensities on a 3D lattice of points and having a segmented tubular structure; providing a starting point in said tubular structure; finding a path in said image between the starting point and every other point in the tubular structure that minimizes an accumulative cost function, wherein said minimum accumulative cost φ(x) at a point x is a minimum of (φ(x′)+P  wherein {right arrow over (u)}(α)=sin(α){right arrow over (u)} 1 +cos(α){right arrow over (u)} 2 and {right arrow over (u)} 1 and {right arrow over (u)} 2 define a 2D plane, and ƒ(x 0 ,R{right arrow over (u)}(α)) is a fit measure along vector {right arrow over (u)}(α) starting from x 0 ,  wherein M is the number of background points.