Method and system for coronary artery centerline extraction
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsYefeng Zheng, Jianhua Shen, Huseyin Tek, Gareth Funka-Lea, Fernando Vega-Higuera, Dorin Comaniciu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for extracting coronary artery centerlines from 3D medical image volumes is disclosed. Heart chambers are segmented in a 3D volume. Coronary artery centerlines are initialized in the 3D volume coronary artery based on the segmented heart chambers. The coronary artery centerlines are locally refined based on a vesselness measure. A length of each coronary artery centerline is shrunk to verify that the coronary artery centerline is within a coronary artery. The coronary artery centerline is the extended using data-driven vessel tracing.
Claims29
A method of extracting at least one coronary artery centerline from a 3D volume, comprising:
- segmenting heart chambers in the 3D volume;
- initializing a coronary artery centerline in the 3D volume for at least a portion of at least one coronary artery based on the segmented heart chambers;
- locally refining points of the coronary artery centerline;
- shrinking a length of the coronary artery centerline to verify that the coronary artery centerline is within the at least one coronary artery;
- and
- extending the coronary artery centerline using vessel tracing after shrinking the length of the coronary artery centerline to verify that the coronary artery centerline is within the at least one coronary artery.
An apparatus for extracting at least one coronary artery centerline from a 3D volume, comprising:
- means for segmenting heart chambers in the 3D volume;
- means for initializing a coronary artery centerline in the 3D volume for at least a portion of at least one coronary artery based on the segmented heart chambers;
- means for locally refining points of the coronary artery centerline;
- means for shrinking a length of the coronary artery centerline to verify that the coronary artery centerline is within the at least one coronary artery;
- and
- means for extending the coronary artery centerline using vessel tracing after shrinking the length of the coronary artery centerline to verify that the coronary artery centerline is within the at least one coronary artery.
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions, which when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of extracting at least one coronary artery centerline from a 3D volume, the method comprising:
- segmenting heart chambers in the 3D volume;
- initializing a coronary artery centerline in the 3D volume for at least a portion of at least one coronary artery based on the segmented heart chambers;
- locally refining points of the coronary artery centerline;
- shrinking a length of the coronary artery centerline to verify that the coronary artery centerline is within the at least one coronary artery;
- and
- extending the coronary artery centerline using vessel tracing after shrinking the length of the coronary artery centerline to verify that the coronary artery centerline is within the at least one coronary artery.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.