Patent ID: 7620224

Claim:
An image display method for visualizing a tubular tissue, comprising receiving volume data of the tubular tissue, wherein the volume data is obtained based on a scan of the tubular tissue using one of a tomographic scanner and a magnetic resonance imaging scanner; three-dimensional image processing for generating, based on said volume data, a masked volume rendering image of an inner wall surface region of said tubular-tissue that is obtained by slicing said tubular tissue by a predetermined curved cutting surface that is curved along a curved path representing a center line of said tubular tissue, two-dimensional image processing for generating a two-dimensional image of said predetermined curved cutting surface, wherein the curved cutting surface conforms to a masked surface of the masked volume rendering image, making a part of said masked volume rendering image transparent, making a part of said two-dimensional image transparent, and synthesizing said masked volume rendering image with said two-dimensional image, wherein the step of synthesizing includes synthesizing the transparent part of the masked volume rendering image with the transparent part of the two-dimensional image, which is determined by opacity of the volume data used in masked volume rendering, and wherein said masked volume rendering image and said two-dimensional image are synthesized to be displayed as a synthesized image, and wherein a part of said masked volume rendering image that is behind said two-dimensional image in the synthesized image is displayed through the transparent part of said two-dimensional image.