Method, apparatus, graphical user interface, computer-readable medium, and use for quantification of a structure in an object of an image dataset

An apparatus (80) for quantification of a structure in a medical image dataset having a plurality of voxels, each voxel having a Hounsfield value (HU), wherein said structure comprises a seed voxel and a first voxel that initially are identical, said apparatus comprising:

• an inserting unit (811) for inserting said first voxel as a first element into a queue, in which voxels are organized by increasing Hounsfield value, and
• a repeating unit comprising:
• an identifying unit (812) for identifying a first set of neighbor voxels having Hounsfield values under a predetermined threshold,
• an inserting unit (813) for inserting said first set of neighbor voxels into said queue,
• a registering unit (814) registering for said first voxel the Hounsfield value encountered on a path originating from said seed voxel, wherein said path is a sequence of voxels in said plurality of voxels and wherein each successive voxel of the path is a neighbor voxel of a previously processed voxel, and that each voxel of the path is chosen from the queue,
• a calculating unit (815) for calculating a difference or ratio between a maximum Hounsfield value of all voxels on said path and the Hounsfield value of said first voxel to quantify said structure voxel by voxel,
• a marking unit (816) for marking said first voxel, such that it will subsequently enter said queue again, for repeating until all remaining unprocessed voxels are processed and the queue is empty.

A computer readable medium (100) having embodied thereon a computer program for processing by a computer for quantification of a structure in a medical image dataset having a plurality of voxels, each voxel having a Hounsfield value (HU), wherein said structure comprises a seed voxel and a first voxel that initially are identical, said computer program comprising:

• an inserting code segment (1011) for inserting said first voxel as a first element into a queue, in which voxels are organized by increasing Hounsfield value, and
• a repeating code segment comprising:
• an identifying code segment (1012) for identifying a first set of neighbor voxels having Hounsfield values under a predetermined threshold,
• an inserting code segment (1013) for inserting said first set of neighbor voxels into said queue,
• a registering code segment (1014) registering for said first voxel the Hounsfield value encountered on a path originating from said seed voxel, wherein said path is a sequence of voxels in said plurality of voxels and wherein each successive voxel of the path is a neighbor voxel of a previously processed voxel, and that each voxel of the path is chosen from the queue,
• a calculating code segment (1015) for calculating a difference or ratio between a maximum Hounsfield value of all voxels on said path and the Hounsfield value of said first voxel to quantify said structure voxel by voxel,
• a marking code segment (1016) for marking said first voxel, such that it will not subsequently enter said queue again, for repeating until all remaining unprocessed voxels are processed and the queue is empty.