Patent ID: 7211046

Claim:
A system for creating a reformatted medical diagnostic image of a physical structure of the body, the system comprising: a scanner operable for obtaining a plurality of parallel axial images of the physical structure of the body; a first algorithm operable for automatically, without user intervention, selecting a plurality of points from the plurality of parallel axial images of the physical structure of the body, wherein the plurality of points define a path across the plurality of parallel axial images of the physical structure of the body; a second algorithm operable for automatically generating a curved reformatted image of the physical structure of the body along the path across the plurality of parallel axial images of the physical structure of the body, wherein the curved reformatted image is based in part on a trace comprising common geometries of the physical structure of the body of a plurality of patients; and a display operable for displaying the curved reformatted image of the physical structure of the body for diagnostic purposes.