3D geometrical segmentation and reconstruction of anatomical structures

Abstract

In this paper an improved method for 3D surface reconstruction from 2D images together with the 2D/3D segmentation method is presented. The method aims to model and parameterise anatomical structures previously segmented from medical images. The whole automatic method may be divided into segmentation and reconstruction, which is carried out in four steps: 1) Geodesic based segmentation of the anatomical structures under consideration, 2) Contour representation and simplification based on Douglas-Peucker algorithm, 3) Global 3D incremental Delaunay Triangulation and 4) a final sculpting process of the non-object tetrahedral. The sculpting process is based on the spatial information and contour parameterisation obtained in the segmentation stage. Our 3D reconstruction method is global and free of parameters, which is not the case of other 3D reconstruction techniques. Moreover, it allows to include at any time vertex and contour points information. Results for CT and MR images are presented. Geodesic 3D based segmentation is compared to the reconstruction result. A comparison between 3D reconstructions and 3D segmentation is presented.