Region growing in anatomical images
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for detecting a candidate region of interest from anatomical images comprising the steps of:
- selecting one or more seed voxels from a volume created from the anatomical images;
growing a region from the seed voxels, said region defined by a volume made up of voxels contiguous to the seed voxel and satisfying growth criteria;
creating one or more arrays at least one of which relates each voxel of the region to a first voxel distance; and
processing a function of the created arrays to determine a candidate region of interest.
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Abstract
A region-growing method for identifying nodules in an anatomical volume segments a 3-D image volume by controlled voxel growth from seed points. The process is based on creation and use of a distance map for tracking the distance of vessel voxels from a predetermined location. A volume map is created that identifies the largest sphere that can pass between a voxel and a predetermined location without touching a non-vessel voxel. The ratio between the distance map and the volume map is analyzed to find regions more likely to contain nodules, the features of which can be extracted or otherwise highlighted.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method for detecting a candidate region of interest from anatomical images comprising the steps of:
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selecting one or more seed voxels from a volume created from the anatomical images; growing a region from the seed voxels, said region defined by a volume made up of voxels contiguous to the seed voxel and satisfying growth criteria; creating one or more arrays at least one of which relates each voxel of the region to a first voxel distance; and processing a function of the created arrays to determine a candidate region of interest. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A computer-readable medium storing a program for identifying a candidate region of interest in a series of digital images of the lung, said program comprising:
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logic code for selecting a seed voxel from a volume created from the digital images; logic code for growing a region from the seed voxel, said region defined by a volume made up of voxels contiguous to the seed voxel and satisfying growth criteria; logic code for creating one or more arrays at least one of which relates each voxel of the region to a first voxel distance; and logic code for processing a function of the created arrays to determine a candidate region of interest. - View Dependent Claims (31)
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32. A method for detecting a candidate nodule from anatomical images comprising the steps of:
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selecting a seed voxel from a volume created from the anatomical images; growing a region from the seed voxel, said region defined by a volume made up of voxels contiguous across a plurality of anatomical images to the seed voxel and satisfying growth criteria; creating a first array having first array values associated with widths of a vessel; and processing the first array values by identifying local maxima or minima of the widths of a vessel to determine a candidate nodule location.
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33. A method for detecting from anatomical images a candidate region of interest comprising the steps of:
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selecting one or more seed voxels from a volume created from the anatomical images; growing a first region from a seed voxel, said region defined by a volume made up of voxels contiguous to the seed voxel and satisfying a first set of growth criteria; growing within the first region a second region, said second region defined by a volume made up of voxels contiguous with the seed voxel and satisfying a second set of growth criteria; and analyzing one or more portions of the first region that are not included in the second region based on the voxel intensities for voxels in the one or more portions.
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34. A method for detecting a candidate region of interest from anatomical images of a vessel structure comprising the steps of:
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selecting a seed voxel from a volume created from the anatomical images; growing a region from the seed voxel, said region defined by a volume made up of voxels contiguous to the seed voxel and satisfying growth criteria; creating a first array having first array values associated with widths of a vessel at increasing distance from the seed voxel; creating a second array having second array values that decrease monotonically with increasing distance from the seed voxel from a maximum width value to a minimum width value; forming ratios of the second array values to the first array values; and identifying a region of interest at a distance from the seed voxel where the ratio is substantially different from other ratios.
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Specification