Reconstruction method of organ vessel centerline

A method of producing a 3D centerline of an organ vessel from a plurality of 2D images of an organ comprising the organ vessel, the plurality of 2D images having been produced from one or more x-ray sources, the plurality of 2D images being of the organ in different projection planes, and the plurality of 2D images having been pre-processed to identify 2D vessel centerlines, the method comprising the Steps:

• (A) producing a point-cloud of 3D points which comprises:
• (i) a first set of points which represent the intersection points between
• (a) projection lines from a plurality of points on a 2D vessel centerline from a first 2D image to the first x-ray source, and
• (b) projection lines from a plurality of points on a 2D vessel centerline from a second 2D image to the second x-ray source;
• and
• (ii) a second set of points which represent nearest orthogonal points between projection lines defined in (a) and projection lines defined in (b) if the projection lines defined in (a) and the projection lines defined in (b) do not intersect;
• (B) fitting a compound curve to the points in the point-cloud of 3D points, the curve having a defined number of breakpoints;
• (C) removing outliers from the point-cloud;
• (D) fitting a new compound curve to the remaining points in the point-cloud of 3D points, the new compound curve having an increased number of breakpoints compared to the previous compound curve;
• and
• (E) repeating Steps (C) and (D) one or more times;
• wherein the resultant compound curve represents the 3D centerline of the organ vessel.