Medical image diagnosis assisting apparatus and method, and computer readable recording medium on which is recorded program for the same

A medical image diagnosis assisting method, comprising the steps of:

• detecting, from a three-dimensional medical image representing a subject's internal structure having a branch structure and a peripheral structure which is a structure located in a periphery of the branch structure and functionally associated with the branch structure, an abnormal peripheral structure which is an abnormal portion of the peripheral structure;
• extracting the branch structure from the three-dimensional medical image;
• identifying a portion of the branch structure functionally associated with the abnormal peripheral structure as an associated branch structure based on position information of each point in the extracted branch structure;
• and
• identifying a portion of the peripheral structure functionally associated with the identified associated branch structure as an associated peripheral structure based on the position information of each point in the extracted branch structure.

A non-transitory computer readable recording medium on which is recorded a medical image diagnosis assisting program for causing a computer to perform the steps of:

• detecting, from a three-dimensional medical image representing a subject's internal structure having a branch structure and a peripheral structure which is a structure located in a periphery of the branch structure and functionally associated with the branch structure, an abnormal peripheral structure which is an abnormal portion of the peripheral structure;
• extracting the branch structure from the three-dimensional medical image;
• identifying a portion of the branch structure functionally associated with the abnormal peripheral structure as an associated branch structure based on position information of each point in the extracted branch structure;
• and
• identifying a portion of the peripheral structure functionally associated with the identified associated branch structure as an associated peripheral structure based on the position information of each point in the extracted branch structure.