Patent ID: 7876936

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of processing a series of computed tomography (CT) sections of a pulmonary region to separate pulmonary arteries from pulmonary veins comprising: receiving a first identification of vessels of the pulmonary region from a user interface device, the first identification identifying each of the vessels as one of the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins visible in each of the CT sections and including a tracing of each of the vessels of the pulmonary region through one or more of the CT sections, by: displaying each of the series of CT sections of the pulmonary region using the user interface device, receiving a tracing of the vessels of the pulmonary region through each of the series of CT sections using the user interface, and receiving an identification of each of the vessels of the pulmonary region as one of the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins using the user interface; performing a computer-aided identification of vessels of the pulmonary region to provide a second identification of vessels of the pulmonary region using a region growing algorithm, the second identification identifying each of the vessels as one of the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins in each of the CT sections and the computer-aided identification being implemented without using the first identification; combining the first identification with the second identification to produce a combined identification of the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins and detect differences between the first and second identification; using the combined identification of the pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins to segment the pulmonary arteries from the pulmonary veins; and displaying the differences between the first and second identification using the user interface device.