Patent ID: 7353117

Claim:
A method for estimating a thickness of a wall of a lumen from an image of the lumen, comprising the steps of: (a) in an image of the lumen, identifying an inner contour and an outer contour; (b) performing a low resolution triangulation function to define triangles between the inner contour and the outer contour; (c) adding additional triangles between the inner contour and the outer contour; (d) analyzing edges of the triangles that were defined and added using a minimal energy function to identify triangle edges that correspond to a width between the inner contour and the outer contour; (e) comparing triangle edges identified as corresponding to a width between the inner contour and the outer contour to identify a minimum width and a maximum width corresponding respectively to a minimum wall thickness and a maximum wall thickness of the lumen; and (f) having identified the minimum width and the maximum width, executing at least one step selected from the group consisting of the following steps: (i) storing indications of the minimum width and the maximum width such that the indications are available for later use by a user; and (ii) outputting indications of the minimum width and the maximum width to a user.