Patent Document ID: 9971952
Application ID: 15019417
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for segmenting a nerve in a three-dimensional image volume obtained with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the steps of the method comprising: (a) providing a three-dimensional image volume that depicts a nerve and surrounding anatomical structures in a series of contiguous image slices obtained with an MRI system; (b) selecting a cross-sectional image from the image volume; (c) generating a plurality of planes that intersect at a common point in the selected cross-sectional image and are orthogonal to the selected cross-sectional image; (d) generating a planar reformatted image for each of the plurality of planes; (e) estimating nerve contours in each of the planar reformatted images; (f) receiving user feedback to adjust the estimated nerve contours; (g) generating a surface estimate based on the adjusted nerve contours; and (h) generating a volume that defines the nerve segmented from the surrounding anatomical structures based on the generated surface estimate.