Apparatus for assisting in determining a functional subdivision into arterial feeder regions in an organ of a subject

A method for assisting in determining a functional subdivision into arterial feeding regions in an organ of a subject, the method comprising:

• providing an image of an organ of a subject, wherein the image is an anatomical image acquired after the administration of a contrast agent,
• defining a region of interest in the image for which the arterial feeding regions are to be determined,
• generating a geodesic distance map for the region of interest based on the anatomical image, wherein a voxel of the geodesic distance map is given by a cumulated path cost from a predetermined seed to the respective voxel and wherein the path cost is determined based on a cost function taking into account at least one of a vesselness filter response or a contrast agent density determined, respectively, based on the image, and
• at least one of providing the geodesic distance map to a user or to further processing to determine the arterial feeding regions.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• provide an image of an organ of a subject, wherein the image is an anatomical image acquired after the administration of a contrast agent,
• define a region of interest in the image for which the arterial feeding regions are to be determined,
• generate a geodesic distance map for the region of interest based on the anatomical image, wherein a voxel of the geodesic distance map is given by a cumulated path cost from a predetermined seed to the respective voxel and wherein the path cost is determined based on a cost function taking into account at least one of a vesselness filter response or a contrast agent density determined, respectively, based on the image, and
• at least one of provide the geodesic distance map to a user or to further processing to determine the arterial feeding regions.