Patent · US Active

Method of automatic extraction of the pulmonary artery tree from 3D medical images

US7970189B2 · kind B2 · utility

11Cited by

2References

20Claims

0Family size

Assignee

KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV · NL

Inventors

Thomas Buelow · Großhansdorf, DE
Rafael Wiemker · Kisdorf, DE
Thomas Blaffert · Hamburg, DE
Cristian Lorenz · Hamburg, DE
Steffen Renisch · Eindhoven, NL

Key dates

Filing date	Feb 6, 2006
Grant date	Jun 28, 2011
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Oct 27, 2028

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG06T2207/30101
WIPO fieldComputer technology
WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An automated method (1) for the automatic extraction of a pulmonary vessel tree from a 3D medical image, such as multi-slice CT data, is disclosed. A segmented pulmonary vessel is identified as either an artery or a vein by determining a measure for arterialness for the vessel. The measure is based on a relation of the orientation of a local bronchus to the orientation of the segmented pulmonary vessel of the local bronchus. When a vessel is identified as a pulmonary artery, it is added to the pulmonary artery tree. Radii of the pulmonary artery and bronchus are measured automatically and positions where a ratio of these radii exhibits unusual values are presented in a display, preferably for suggesting further assessment by a radiologist, which for instance is useful for pulmonary embolism detection.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.