Patent ID: 7783132

Claim:
A method of processing a volume image comprising a plurality of slices, said method comprising the steps of: determining a first version of the midsagittal plane for all slices in the volume image to establish the dorsal and ventral extents of the volume image; defining a sub-volume of the volume image for atlas mapping using the first midsagittal plane; Identifying the most superior plane and the most inferior plane of the sub-volume; determining a second version of the midsagittal plane for all the slices in the volume image between and including the most superior plane and the most inferior plane; combining the first version and the second version to determine a final version of the midsagittal plane; defining a sub-volume of the image using the final version of the midsagittal plane; identifying the most superior plane and the most inferior plane of the sub-volume; determining for each slice between the most superior plane and the most inferior plane the shape of the corresponding sub-volume profile in the plane of the slice; and registering, for each slice, the determined shape of the corresponding sub-volume profile to a slice in the Atlas.