Patent Document ID: 9390497
Application ID: 14477738
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A medical image processing apparatus comprising: an image obtainment unit that is configured to obtain a three-dimensional image obtained by imaging an area of a patient body; an extraction unit that is configured to extract, from the three-dimensional image, an organ of interest within the imaged area of the patient body; a degree-of-interest setting unit that is configured to set a relative degree of interest at each of a plurality of positions on a path connecting the plurality of positions in the organ of interest; a discrimination condition obtainment unit that is configured to obtain a discrimination condition for identifying, based on the set degree or degrees of interest, whether or not to generate a virtual endoscopic image corresponding to each position on the path from the three-dimensional image; and an image generation unit that is configured to identify each position on the path which has a degree of interest greater than or equal to a threshold value based on the discrimination condition and generate, based on the three-dimensional image, only the virtual endoscopic image or images viewed from viewpoints corresponding to the identified positions, respectively.