Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Using High Resolution Computed Tomography to Visualize the Three Dimensional Structure and Function of Plant Vasculature
Published on: April 5, 2013
Tangential curved planar reformation for topological and orientation invariant visualization of vascular trees
1Heffner Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Columbia University, 1210 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA. nl12168@columbia.edu
Abstract:
Recently, extensions to curved planar reformation (CPR) were proposed to improve vascular visualization of medical images. While these projective transformations provide enhanced visualization of vascular trees, non-planar alignment and arbitrary topology can cause visualization artifacts. Vascular trees in medical images are not aligned to planar cross-sections of volumetric image slices and thus aggravate simultaneous visualization of diagnostic features. Complex tree topology and non-planar alignment requires the need for an adaptive projection scheme to prevent visualization artifacts while preserving correctness of anatomical information. In this paper, we present algorithmic details for topological and orientation invariant visualization of vascular trees. Vascular high-level description of the medial axis guides the reformation process by flattening the vascular tree interior to successive image planes for respective radial sampling angles. Tree orientations are estimated from intrinsic shape properties of the vascular tree for rotation invariant projection. Radial sampling planes perpendicular to the medial axis tangents are the basis for topological invariant visualization of complete vascular interiors. We present experimental results on two different vascular tree topologies and demonstrate that our method is able to produce artifact free visualization of vascular interiors.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Tangent Planes to Surfaces
Tangent Planes to a Parametric Surface
Tangent Planes to Level Surfaces
Overview of the Vascular System
Curvature and Its Interpretation
Deformations in a Transverse Cross Section
As the material stretches, it expands or contracts in orthogonal directions to the load. This phenomenon varies...

