We describe a method for segmenting airway trees from greyscale 3D images such as CT (Computed Tomography)
scans. Our approach is based on topological analysis of sets obtained by thresholding from thick slices, i.e. sub-images
consisting of a small number of consecutive slices. From each thick slice under consideration, we select
all sets S obtained from that thick slice by thresholding that have simple enough topological structure. As the
selection criterion, we use a simple algebraic condition involving the numbers of connected components in the
intersection of the set S with every slice in the thick slice. The condition basically asserts that the intersections
of S with each of the slices is small and attempts to limit the number of the branching points of S within the
thick slice.
The output 3D model of the airway tree is obtained as the largest connected component of the union of all
selected sets, extracted from several overlapping thick slices. Experiments with a number of chest CT scans show
that the method leads to promising results.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.