Automatic femur segmentation and condyle line detection in 3D MR scans for alignment of high resolution MR

A method for femur segmentation and condyle line detection, comprising:

• scanning a knee of a patient with medical imaging equipment to obtain 3D imaging data with such equipment;
• processing the obtained 3D imaging data in a digital processor to determine two lines tangent to the bottom of knee condyles in an axial and a coronal plane;
• and
• automatically scanning the patient in a plane defined by the determined lines,
• wherein one of the lines is included in an axial slice of the 3D imaging data, the axial slice being determined by calculating, for each axial slice in the 3D imaging data, a first average of probabilities between a left side center of a segmented femur and a left condyle, a second average of probabilities between a right side center of the segmented femur and a right condyle, and a third average probability between the center of the segmented femur and a middle point in an inter-condyle line, obtaining a value of the axial slice by summing the first and second average probabilities and subtracting the third probability from this sum, identifying the axial slices whose values are within a predetermined range, and selecting, from the identified axial slices, the axial slice with the most posterior condyle positions.