Systems and methods for extracting a curve-skeleton from a volumetric image of a vessel

A system for extracting a curve-skeleton from a volumetric image of a vessel, the system comprising:

• a processor;
• a storage medium operably connected to the processor, the storage medium capable of receiving and storing morphometric data;
• wherein the processor is operable to:
• identify a set of voxels;
• neglect all voxels within the set of voxels having a gradient length below a predetermined threshold length;
• compute a series of local maxima points with sub-voxel precision along the gradient by comparing remaining voxels to neighboring voxels, the series of local maxima points representative of an interior surface of a vessel boundary;
• and
• process the series of local maxima points having the sub-voxel precision along the gradient to indirectly calculate a curve skeleton of the vessel, the curve skeleton representative of the vessel's centerline.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoding a program having a plurality of program steps to be executed on a computer having a processor and a storage medium to extract a curve-skeleton from a volumetric image of a vessel having a local center and a boundary, the program operable to:

• identify a set of voxels;
• neglect all voxels within the set of voxels having a gradient length below a predetermined threshold length;
• compute a series of local maxima with sub-voxel precision along the gradient by comparing remaining voxels to neighboring voxels, the series of local maxima points representative of an interior surface of the vessel boundary that surrounds an interior of the vessel;
• and
• process each point in the series to indirectly calculate a curve skeleton of the vessel by applying a topological analysis to a vector field that is computed based on the series of local maxima points such that the vectors of the vector field point towards the interior of the vessel;
• wherein the storage medium is operably connected to the processor, the storage medium is capable of receiving and storing the morphometric data.