Apparatus, method and medium storing program for reconstructing intra-tubular-structure image

A method for reconstructing an image of the inside of a tubular structure, the method comprising the steps of:

• obtaining a three-dimensional image representing a tubular structure of a subject;
• obtaining a three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image, which is a three-dimensional image of the inside of the tubular structure that has been generated from a plurality of tomographic images of the tubular structure obtained by performing tomography on the tubular structure a plurality of times from the inside of the tubular structure along a path in the tubular structure;
• extracting the tubular structure from each of the obtained three-dimensional image and the obtained three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image;
• correlating an arbitrary range in one of the tubular structure extracted from the three-dimensional image and the tubular structure extracted from the three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image with a corresponding range in the other one of the tubular structures;
• and
• generating a projection three-dimensional image by projecting an image of a specific structure included in the range in the three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image into the correlated range in the three-dimensional image.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing therein a program for reconstructing an image of the inside of a tubular structure, the program causing a computer to function as:

• a three-dimensional image obtainment unit that obtains a three-dimensional image representing a tubular structure of a subject;
• a three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image obtainment unit that obtains a three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image, which is a three-dimensional image of the inside of the tubular structure that has been generated from a plurality of tomographic images of the tubular structure obtained by performing tomography on the tubular structure a plurality of times from the inside of the tubular structure along a path in the tubular structure;
• a structure extraction unit that extracts the tubular structure from each of the obtained three-dimensional image and the obtained three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image;
• a correlating unit that correlates an arbitrary range in one of the tubular structure extracted from the three-dimensional image and the tubular structure extracted from the three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image with a corresponding range in the other one of the tubular structures;
• and
• a projection three-dimensional image generation unit that generates a projection three-dimensional image by projecting an image of a specific structure included in the range in the three-dimensional intra-tubular-structure image into the correlated range in the three-dimensional image.