Patent ID: 8422748

Claim:
A method for grouping airway and artery pairs, comprising: computing a two-dimensional (2D) cross-section of an airway; identifying regions of high-intensity in the 2D cross-section; computing a first indicator for each of the high intensity regions, wherein the first indicator is an orientation measure of the high intensity region with respect to the airway, wherein the orientation measure is a scalar product of long axes of the airway and the high intensity region; computing a second indicator for each of the high intensity regions, wherein the second indicator is a circularity measure of the high intensity region; computing a third indicator for each of the high intensity regions, wherein the third indicator is a proximity measure of the high intensity region with respect to the airway; summing the first through third indicators for each of the high intensity regions to obtain a score for each of the high intensity regions; and determining which of the high intensity regions is an artery corresponding to the airway based on its score, wherein the first to third indicators are computed by using machine code executable by a computer processor.