Patent ID: 7650023
Filing Date: 2010-01-19
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for filtering tomographic 3D images of an examination object, the examination object being imaged by using a volume model that divides the volume of the examination object into a multiplicity of three-dimensional image voxels with individual image values, and the image value of each voxel reproducing an object-specific property of the examination object in this volume, the method comprising: calculating, after the reconstruction of the total volume, variances for each image voxel in a prescribed region or radius to determine contrast jumps and their spatial orientation with their tangential planes; filtering the image values in the tangential plane with a two-dimensional convolution; and mixing the original voxel data in weighted fashion with the filtered voxel data, wherein the spatial orientation of a contrast jump is determined by the tangential plane thereof, this plane being defined by the vectors v the filtering is carried out in the tangential plane by two-dimensional convolution in such a way that the filter is formed as a function of the minimum variance v a typical variance v the calculating, the filtering and the mixing is for at least one of Computed Tomography (CT), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) pictures of a medical patient using a system including at least one of a CT device, an NMR device, and a PET device.