Patent Document ID: 20120219197
Application ID: 13036414
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A computer-automated image processing method, comprising: accessing a 4D image data set comprising a plurality of 3D image data sets of a volume taken in time sequence, wherein the volume includes at least part of the abdomen of a living subject; selecting one of the 3D images to serve as a reference volume 3D image data set; partitioning the reference volume 3D image data set into an abdominal cavity domain inside the abdominal wall and an abdominal wall domain including the abdominal wall and externally adjacent anatomical features; registering each of the 3D image data sets to the reference volume 3D image data set for the abdominal cavity domain to obtain a first warp field defined over the abdominal cavity domain; registering each of the 3D image data sets to the reference volume 3D image data set for the abdominal wall domain to obtain a second warp field defined over the abdominal wall domain; for each of the 3D image data sets, merging the first and second warp fields into a single consistent merged warp field defined over the whole volume; using each of the merged warp fields to bring the corresponding 3D image data set into registration with the reference volume 3D image data set.