Patent ID: 7881512

Claim:
A method for determining a three-dimensional profile of a vessel axis in a volume data record for medical imaging, the method comprising: producing a volume data record of an examination area; at least one of extracting and calculating, and then displaying to an operator, at least one of a stack of a plurality of planar slice images of the examination area and one or more MIP images of the examination area from the volume data record; marking a vessel axis interactively by marking points using a two-dimensional coordinate system in at least one of the displayed slice images of the stack and the one or more displayed MIP images; deriving depth information, automatically for each marking point, at least one of from a known position of a respective slice image in the stack and using a known calculation procedure for the one or more MIP images, and extending the marking points in dimension based upon the derived depth information to obtain extended marking points using a three-dimensional coordinate system for the volume data record; and determining the three-dimensional profile of the vessel axis by linking the obtained extended marking points.