Coronary Virtual Endoscopy System Based On CT Images

Since coronary disease has been a serious threat to human health,an effective diagnosis method of coronary artery disease remains to be proposed.The emergence of virtual endoscopy provides a new solution to the problem.As a non-invasive medical approach,virtual endoscopes are increasingly used instead of traditional diagnostic methods。Virtual endoscopy represents a specific visualization tool of 3-dimensional(3D)volume rendering technique,with the aid of computer software to generate intraluminal views of anatomical structures.This visualization tool is able to provide intraluminal visualization of specific organs similar to those produced by conventional endoscopic procedures.Account for the characteristic of coronary system,a virtual coronary endoscope system is designed in this article.As the title says,the system adopts coronary CT images as input data.In aspect of path planning,a minimal cost path algorithm is used to extract the centerline of coronary.In aspect of coronary segmentation,a layer display method is proposed based on the combination of centerline and the level set method.After the 3D construction of the coronary,a coronary virtual endoscope system is realized with favorable navigation effect.