Teniæ Coli detection from colon surface: Extraction of anatomical markers for virtual colonoscopy

Abstract

The teniæ coli, three longitudinal bands of muscle on the colon surface, are important anatomical structures for severed virtual colonoscopy applications: colon registration, virtual dissection, navigation and polyp matching. The current detection method involves manually tracing one of the teniæ on the colon surface, a long and error-prone process. In this paper, we present a semi-automated detection method, which only requires the user to reconnect a few long segments of teniæ. This method is based on local parameterizations of the colon surface, and on the application of classical image processing algorithms on the graph created by the triangular mesh of the surface. The results, computed on four test cases, are promising. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.