Automated labeling of bronchial branches in virtual bronchoscopy system

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for automated labeling of bronchia] branches in virtual bronchoscopy system. Anatomical names of bronchial branches are assigned basing upon a set of rules. If it is possible to assign the anatomical names to bronchial branches extracted from CT images by the computer and is possible to display the name of the currently observed branch on a virtual bronchoscopy image, it will help us to understand the current observing position. The proposed method constructs the knowledge base of anatomical names of bronchial branches. Tree structure of bronchus region is extracted from CT image. Labeling is performed by comparing tree structure information of the extracted bronchus with information of the branches described in the knowledge base. We implemented the proposed method with the virtual bronchoscopy system and obtained satisfactorily result.