| abstract |
Volumetric images of a vessel are captured by an imaging system and the volumetric images are reformatted into rectilinear data by a method, an apparatus, and a computer-readable medium storing a program. More particularly, volumetric data captured by an imageing modality is reformatting by isolating a structure, such as by dissecting a vessel from the remaining tissue, and stretching the structure into a rectilinear form corresponding to the structure. Reformatting the volumetric data corresponding to the structure includes partitioning a structure roughly from adjoining material by segmenting the structure from the adjoining material using a suitable CT intensity threshold, dilating the segmented structure, determining an axis of the structure along the entire length of the structure, determining planes at selected places along the structure's axis that are orthogonal cross sections of the structure, and reformatting the volumetric data along the planes to generate reformatted CT data. The reformatted CT data corresponds to data that would have been reconstructed by the CT imaging system if the structure had been pulled straight and the CT imaging system would have captured directly an image of the straightened structure. |