Apparatus and method for vertebral body recognition in medical images

An apparatus of identifying a vertebral body from a medical image, the apparatus comprising:

• a vertebral identification module configured to identify the vertebral body based on a multi-slice medical image,
• wherein the vertebral identification module
• reconstructs the multi-slice medical image to create a three-dimensional medical image,
• obtains a coronal projection image for the three-dimensional medical image by projecting the three-dimensional medical image in a coronal plane direction,
• divides the coronal projection image into a selection area including at least one of lumbar and thoracic, obtains area information corresponding to the selection area in the three-dimensional medical image based on the divided selection area, and
• performs numbering on the vertebral body based on the area information and the three-dimensional medical image, and
• wherein in the performing of the numbering on the vertebral body,
• the three-dimensional medical image is input into a pre-trained deep learning model to divide the vertebral body, and
• the numbering on the vertebral body is performed based on the area information.