Coupling the viewing direction of a blood vessel's CPR view with the viewing angle on the 3D tubular structure's rendered voxel volume and/or with the C-arm geometry of a 3D rotational angiography device's C-arm system

An image rendering system-for planning or guiding an intervention procedure in a 3D tubular structure, the system comprising

• a preprocessor comprising a digital filter;
• and
• an integrated image processor comprising:
• an image recognition processor for determining the central axis of the 3D tubular structure to be visualized,
• a registration processor for determining the parameters of a 2D-3D registration mapping (P) used for registering the 3D tubular structure's rendered voxel volume with the 2D projection image and determining the parameters of a curved reformat mapping (C) for transforming the coordinates of the 3D tubular structure's central axis in a curved plane following the spatial course of said central axis in its longitudinal direction as well as in a latitudinal direction parallel to the projection plane of the 2D projection image into the curved planar reformat view's coordinate space, wherein the transforming of the 3D tubular structure's central axis comprises smoothing the 3D tubular structure's central axis by removing those parts of the central axis that protrude in a direction of a latitudinal vector that is orthogonal to the central axis,
• a mapping processor for compositing the curved planar reformat view and the 2D projection image of said 3D tubular structure's rendered voxel volume by performing said 2D-3D registration mapping (P), curved reformat mapping (C) and/or a mapping rule (C−1) inverse to said curved reformat mapping (C), and
• a visualization processor for creating a fused image of the curved planar reformat view and the 2D projection image of said 3D tubular structure's rendered voxel volume after being submitted to said 2D-3D registration mapping (P), curved reformat mapping (C) and/or inverse curved reformat mapping (C−1);
• and
• a display for visualizing the fused image;
• wherein the system is configured so that the viewing direction of the curved planar reformat view follows or is steered by the viewing angle on a segmented or raw representation of the 3D tubular structure's rendered voxel volume to be visualized or to the C-arm geometry of a 3D rotational angiography device's C-arm system, wherein the viewing angle on the 3D tubular structure's rendered voxel volume is manipulated in such a way that the corresponding curved planar reformat view does not change, by rotating the viewing angle about a latitudinal direction so that the 3D view allows the selection of a view in which no overlap between different vessel segments occurs, wherein the viewing angle rotation is a unique rotation by making an up-vector of the curved planar reformat view on the 3D tubular structure's voxel data set correspond to the up-vector of the 3D rotational angiography device's C-arm system for a given yaw position, wherein the up-vector is given by the y-axis of the reformatted 2D view port.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for performing a method for planning or guiding an intervention procedure in a 3D tubular structure, the method comprising rendering and displaying a 3D tubular structure's pre-procedural curved planar reformat view, wherein the rendering of the curved planar reformat view comprises smoothing a center axis of the 3D tubular structure by removing those parts of the center axis that protrude in a direction of a latitudinal vector that is orthogonal to the center axis, and following or steering the viewing direction of the curved planar reformat view by the viewing angle on a segmented or raw representation of the 3D tubular structure's rendered voxel volume to be visualized or the C-arm geometry of a 3D rotational angiography device's C-arm system, wherein the viewing angle on the 3D tubular structure's rendered voxel volume is manipulated in such a way that the corresponding curved planar reformat view does not change, by rotating the viewing angle about a latitudinal direction so that the 3D view allows the selection of a view in which no overlap between different vessel segments occurs, wherein the viewing angle rotation is a unique rotation by making an up-vector of the curved planar reformat view on the 3D tubular structure's voxel data set correspond to the up-vector of the 3D rotational angiography device's C-arm system for a given yaw position, wherein the up-vector is given by the y-axis of the reformatted 2D view port.