Patent ID: 8165378
Filing Date: 2012-04-24
Classification: A61B,G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for visualizing tubular anatomical structures in medical 3D image records, comprising: providing 3D image data of a tubular anatomical structure; determining a centerline of the tubular anatomical structure in the 3D image data; selecting a point of the determined centerline; generating a 2D slice image assigned to the selected point, the 2D slice image representing a sectional plane in the 3D image data, the sectional plane being arranged relative to a section of the centerline, the section including the point, a prescribable section start point and a section end point of the section, such that an orthogonal distance from the sectional plane for each centerline point of the section is less than or equal to a prescribed value R, R being selected to be relatively greater than a value R visually displaying the generated 2D slice image, wherein the generating a 2D slice image includes effecting a principal component analysis of all centerline points of the section to determine a 3D orientation of the sectional plane, the 3D orientation being defined by two vectors which represent a relatively largest and relatively second-largest spatial variance of the centerline points of the section.