Patent ID: 7596257

Claim:
A medical image processing apparatus comprising: a display device for displaying an image; means which displays a three-dimensional medical image on the display device; means which specifies at least three points in the displayed three-dimensional image to define a reference plane passing through the three points in the three-dimensional image; first display switching means which switches the image displayed on the display device to a three-dimensional image viewed in a view direction perpendicular to the reference plane; second display switching means which, in response to definition of a sectional line in the three-dimensional image viewed in the view direction perpendicular to the reference plane, switches the image displayed on the display device to a three-dimensional image viewed in a view direction along the sectional line, and displays a line indicative of the reference plane and a line indicative of a sectional plane based on the sectional line together with this three-dimensional image; adjustment means which inclines the line indicative of the sectional plane displayed together with the three-dimensional image viewed in the view direction along the sectional line independently with respect to the line indicative of the reference plane, wherein the adjustment means is further capable of moving the inclined line indicative of the sectional plane independently along the line indicative of the reference plane in parallel thereto, and wherein the adjustment means maintains the line indicative of the reference plane at the original position; and means which displays an image taken along the sectional plane defined by the inclined line.