Development of 3D expansion method of blood vessel network considering the bifurcation shape

Abstract

The purpose of this study to expand the construction of blood vessel network in multiple ultrasound volumes from different directions using a vascular network structure, and to reconstruct a wider range of vascular network information. The structure of blood vessel networks was extracted from an ultrasound volume to graph with three-dimensional thinning processing. Next, we performed spatial registration using the common branch point between adjacent volumes, and calculate the homogeneous transformation matrix between the volumes. Then, blood vessel networks were expanded by placing them in the same coordinate system.We examined with the ultrasound volumes of a porcine liver, which was obtained from different directions. By comparing the calculated network with that in the CT volume, we confirmed that there were 23 common bifurcation points between them to indicate the possibility of extension using this method. We also applied this method to human livers.