Modeling n-furcated liver vessels from a 3-D segmented volume using hole-making and subdivision methods

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Computational Geometry
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Accurate 3D modeling of liver vessels is challenging due to their small size, noise, and complex n-furcations.
• Existing methods struggle to produce smooth and precise models essential for clinical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automated method for constructing accurate and smooth 3D mesh models of n-furcated liver vessels.
• To address limitations in current liver vessel modeling techniques for improved medical diagnosis and surgical planning.

Main Methods:

• A novel n-furcation vessel tree modeling approach is proposed, starting with segmented volumes and root points.
• Centerlines and cross-sectional contours are extracted, organized into a tree, and broken into branches.
• Polygonal meshes are constructed for each branch and sequentially combined using a hole-making and subdivision method.

Main Results:

• The method successfully constructs smooth mesh models for n-furcated vessels.
• Achieved a mean absolute error of 0.92 voxels and a mean relative error of 0.17.
• Demonstrated efficiency and flexibility in mesh construction and editing.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers an effective solution for generating high-quality 3D liver vessel models.
• The technique shows promise for applications in liver disease diagnosis, analysis, and surgery simulation.
• It is capable of modeling various tubular structures with tree topology.