System and method for analyzing and displaying computed tomography data
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of imaging a tubular body structure having a lumen defined by a wall, comprising:
- providing a data set containing data representing a plurality of cross-sectional images of a tubular structure of the body taken along a longitudinal axis of the tubular body;
processing the data set to reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the tubular body;
identifying a central pathway through a lumen of the three-dimensional image;
selecting a starting point along the central pathway;
processing the data beginning at the starting point and continuing along the longitudinal length of the three-dimensional image of the colon and rendering a flattened view of the three-dimensional image;
storing data representing the flattened view in an image buffer;
displaying the flattened view of the image.
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Abstract
A system (10) and method are provided for analyzing and displaying images rendered from data sets resulting from a scan of a patient. The images displayed include both two-dimensional and three-dimensional views of selected portions of a patient'"'"'s anatomy, for example, a tubular structure such as a colon.
130 Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method of imaging a tubular body structure having a lumen defined by a wall, comprising:
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providing a data set containing data representing a plurality of cross-sectional images of a tubular structure of the body taken along a longitudinal axis of the tubular body;
processing the data set to reconstruct a three-dimensional image of the tubular body;
identifying a central pathway through a lumen of the three-dimensional image;
selecting a starting point along the central pathway;
processing the data beginning at the starting point and continuing along the longitudinal length of the three-dimensional image of the colon and rendering a flattened view of the three-dimensional image;
storing data representing the flattened view in an image buffer;
displaying the flattened view of the image. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11)
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2. The method of claim I, further comprising:
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selecting a point along the central pathway;
processing the data at the selected point and rendering an image of a cross-section of the wall of the tubular structure at the selected point; and
displaying the image of the cross-section of the wall of the tubular structure.
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7. A method for generating a view of the interior of a wall of tubular structure of a body including tissue adjacent the exterior of the wall, comprising the steps of:
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(a) providing a data set containing data representing a three-dimensional volume representing a tubular structure of the body taken along a longitudinal axis of the tubular body, the tubular body having a lumen defined by a wall;
(b) selecting a starting point along a central pathway disposed along the longitudinal axis of the tubular body;
(c) projecting a ray towards the wall a selected distance by stepping towards the wall along the ray from the starting point;
(d) calculating a voxel value at the location of each step of the ray;
(e) adding the voxel value to an image buffer;
(f) incrementing the angular projection of the ray one degree;
(g) determining if the angular projection of the ray has been incremented 360 degrees since the starting point was selected;
(h) projecting a ray having the incremented angulation toward the wall;
(i) repeating steps (d) through (h) until the angular projection of the ray has been incremented 360 degrees; and
(j) displaying a subsurface volume image. - View Dependent Claims (8, 10, 12)
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13. A system for displaying views of data generated during a scan of a body portion of a patient, comprising:
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a memory for storing scan data;
a processor capable of being programmed to analyze scan data, the processor in operable communication with the memory and configured to manipulate data in the memory to render a flattened view of a three-dimensional volume; and
a display for displaying the flattened view.
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Specification