Patent ID: 7010151

Claim:
A method for detecting endplates of vertebra, comprising the steps of: providing a filtered curvature map derived from filtering an intensity curvature map of a spine image in a direction relative to a spine axis; computing minimum and maximum curvature projections for each point along said spine axis; at a plurality of points on said spine axis, computing a score E from said curvature projections, said score indicating the likelihood that the point is located on an endplate, wherein said score E is computed from the equation E = ∑ i = 1 N ⁢ C s , max ⁡ ( e i ) + ∑ V = 1 V ⁢ max p ∈ ( e 2 ⁢ v , e 2 ⁢ ( v + 1 ) ) ⁢ ⁢ { C s , min ⁡ ( p ) } where V is the number of vertebrae, the first term is the sum of the values of said maximum curvature projections at endplate positions, and the second term is the sum of the values of said minimum curvature projections at intervertebral disc positions; and subjecting said score calculation to at least one of the following constraints: (1) that the angle between neighboring endplates not exceed a certain value; and (2) that the variation in height of vertebra of said spine image should satisfy a global model.