Patent ID: 8660325

Claim:
A method of delineating a structure of interest in a three-dimensional image or map, the method comprising: acquiring a stack of axial image slices defining the three-dimensional image or map; manually selecting at least two different contouring planes in the three-dimensional image or map that are different and non-parallel respective to each other; manually defining at least two contours delineating the structure of interest, the at least two manually defined contours lying in the at least two different contouring planes that are different and non-parallel respective to each other; identifying a sub-set of vertices of the three-dimensional polygonal mesh as constrained vertices to be positioned at or near the manually defined contours based on minimum vertex distance from the at least two manually defined contours; and after identifying the constrained vertices, automatically fitting a three-dimensional polygonal mesh to the structure of interest in the three-dimensional image or map with deformation of the constrained vertices being constrained during the automatic fitting by the manually defined contours, wherein the automatic fitting comprises performing an iterative energy or force minimization deformation process including for each iteration: computing a constraint energy or force term for each constrained vertex, the constraint energy or force term being dependent upon the minimum vertex distance from the at least two manually defined contours computing contrast-based energy or force terms for all vertices of the polygonal mesh derived from contrast delineating at least a portion of the structure of interest in the three-dimensional image or map, and deforming the polygonal mesh to minimize a combination of force or energy terms including at least (i) the constraint force or energy terms for the constrained vertices and (ii) the contrast-based deformation energy or force terms for all vertices of the polygonal mesh.