SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ROBUST SEGMENTATION OF TUBULAR STRUCTURES IN 2D AND 3D IMAGES

摘要

A method for segmenting tubular structures in medical images includes providing (62) at least a start point and an end point in a digital image volume, minimizing (63) an action surface U0(p) which, at each image point p, corresponds to a minimal energy integrated along a path that starts at start point p0 and ends at p, sliding back (64) on the minimal action surface from an end point to the start point to find a minimal path connecting the terminal points, initializing(65) a level set function with points on the minimal path, and evolving (66) the level set function to find a surface of a structure about the minimal path, wherein the level set function is constrained to be close to a signed distance function and wherein the level set function is prevented from growing wider than a predetermined diameter R, wherein the surface about the minimal path defines a tubular structure.