Method for detecting the exact contour of targeted treatment areas, in particular, the external contour

US6178345A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• BrainLAB Med. Computersysteme GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Stefan Vilsmeier · Munich, DE
• Rainer Birkenbach · Erding, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: May 10, 1999
• Grant date: Jan 23, 2001
• Expiry date: May 10, 2019

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06T2207/30096
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method for mapping surgical target site contours precisely, especially the outer contour thereof, comprises the following steps: PA1 producing a plane slice image through the surgery site in the region of the surgery target whereby the plane of the slice image is located substantially perpendicular to a a plane of symmetry of the surgery target site; PA1 assigning the images split by the plane of symmetry, more particularly by mirrowing at the plane of symmetry; and PA1 establishing the difference in the image contents between the assigned split images and processing the resulting information to determine the location of the contour of the surgery target site, especially the outer contour thereof in the plane of the slice image.