INVISIBLE BIFURCATION DETECTION WITHIN VESSEL TREE IMAGES

• US 20150010225A1
• Filed: 02/04/2013
• Published: 01/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Popovic, Aleksandra, Elhawary, Haytham
• Granted Patent: US 9,280,823 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/131
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/000094 extracting biological structures
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0005 combining images e.g. side-by-side, superimposed or tiled
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/04 involving 3D image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10068 Endoscopic image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10072 Tomographic images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20072 Graph-based image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30101 Blood vessel; Artery; Vein; Vascular
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/337 involving reference images or patches

Abstract

An image registration system an endoscope (12) and an endoscope controller (22). In operation, the endoscope (12) generates an intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of a vessel tree within an anatomical region including a plurality of branches of the vessel tree visible within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) as an indication of a furcation of the vessel tree invisible within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14). The endoscope controller (22) image registers the intra-operative operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree to a pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree. The image registration includes an image matching of a graphical representation of the furcation of the vessel tree as indicated by the branches of the vessel tree visible within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree to a graphical representation of the furcation of the vessel tree visible within the pre-operative three- dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree.

Claims

1. An image registration system, comprising:

an endoscope (12) operable for generating an intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of a vessel tree within an anatomical region,

wherein the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree includes a plurality of branches of the vessel tree visible within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) as an indication of a furcation of the vessel tree invisible within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14); and

an endoscope controller (22) operable for image registering the intra-operative operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree to a pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree within the anatomical region,

wherein the image registration includes an image matching of a graphical representation of the furcation of the vessel tree as indicated by the visible branches of the vessel tree within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree to a graphical representation of the furcation of the vessel tree within the pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree.

2. The image registration system of claim 1, wherein the image matching includes:

generating a main graph derived from a geometrical representation of the pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree, the main graph including a main set of nodes representative of each furcation of the vessel tree within the pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree;

generating a subgraph derived from a geometrical representation of the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree, the subgraph including a subset of the main set of nodes, wherein a first node of the subset is representative of the furcation of the vessel tree as indicated by the visible branches of the vessel tree within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree; and

node matching the subgraph to the main graph.

3. The image registration system of claim 2, wherein the image matching of the subgraph to the main graph includes:

establishing at least one of a vertical ordering and a horizontal ordering of the nodes in the main graph.

4. The image registration system of claim 1, wherein the image registration further includes:

delineating a polygonal area on the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) enclosing the furcation of the vessel tree invisible within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14).

5. The image registration system of claim 4, wherein a delineation of the polygonal area includes:

marking each branch of the vessel tree visible within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) as a branch segment;

extending rays from each branch segment; and

delineating overlapping rays of different branch segments.

6. The image registration system of claim 4, wherein the image registration further includes:

defining a furcation candidate within the polygonal area as a detection of the furcation of the vessel tree invisible within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14).

7. The image registration system of claim 6, wherein a definition of the furcation candidate within the polygonal area includes:

identifying a center of the polygonal area as the furcation candidate.

8. The image registration system of claim 6, wherein a definition of the furcation candidate within the polygonal area includes:

identifying a point within the polygonal area as the furcation candidate based on an anatomy of the anatomical region.

9. The image registration system of claim 6, wherein a definition of the furcation candidate within the polygonal area includes:

identifying a point within the polygonal area as the furcation candidate based pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree.

10. The image registration system of claim 1,

wherein the image registration further includes:

selecting all visible furcations within the intra-operative endoscopic image (14); and

wherein the image matching includes;

generating a geometrical representation of the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree utilizing the visible furcations and the invisible furcation.

11. The image registration system of claim 10, wherein the image registration further includes:

delineating a polygonal area on the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) enclosing the invisible furcation of the vessel tree, wherein the visible furcations are external to the polygonal area.

12. The image registration system of claim 1, the endoscope controller (22) is further operable for refining an image registration of the intra-operative operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree to a pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree based on a scale of the vessel tree within the pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel.

13. The image registration system of claim 1, wherein a refinement of the image registration includes:

utilizing the scale of the vessel tree within the pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel to scale of a shape of each branch of the vessel tree visible within the intra-operative operative endoscopic image (14); and

utilizing a scale a shape of each branch of the vessel tree visible within the intra-operative operative endoscopic image (14) to execute a point-based registration of the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree to the pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree.

14. The image registration system of claim 1, wherein the endoscope controller (22) is further operable for overlaying the geometrical representation of the pre-operative three-dimensional image (44) of the vessel tree onto the intra-operative endoscopic image (14) of the vessel tree in accordance with the image registration.

15. The image registration system of claim 1, wherein the vessel tree is one of an arterial tree and a venous tree.

16. (canceled)

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20. (canceled)