Patent Document ID: 7729739
Application ID: 11000515
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method operable on a computer for detecting and identifying structures of interest in computed tomographic (CT) volumetric images, comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a heat diffusion field of a volume of interest with structures from a CT volumetric image available on said computer by applying a heat diffusion scheme to said volume of interest with structures; (b) mapping said obtained heat diffusion field to a vector field of said structures; and (c) identifying a structure of interest from said structures using a geometrical analysis of said vector field of said structures, wherein said geometrical analysis comprises computing a spherical symmetry parameter from said mapped vector field of said structure of interest, and wherein said identifying comprises performing a local analysis of the area around said structure of interest and computing a triangulization parameter of said area, whereby both said spherical symmetry parameter and said triangulization parameter are used for the identification of said structure of interest.