Title
Volumetric Colon Wall Unfolding Using Harmonic Differentials.
Abstract
Volumetric colon wall unfolding is a novel method for virtual colon analysis and visualization with valuable applications in virtual colonoscopy (VC) and computer-aided detection (CAD) systems. A volumetrically unfolded colon enables doctors to visualize the entire colon structure without occlusions due to haustral folds, and is critical for performing efficient and accurate texture analysis on the volumetric colon wall. Though conventional colon surface flattening has been employed for these uses, volumetric colon unfolding offers the advantages of providing the needed quantities of information with needed accuracy. This work presents an efficient and effective volumetric colon unfolding method based on harmonic differentials. The colon volumes are reconstructed from CT images and are represented as tetrahedral meshes. Three harmonic 1-forms, which are linearly independent everywhere, are computed on the tetrahedral mesh. Through integration of the harmonic 1-forms, the colon volume is mapped periodically to a canonical cuboid. The method presented is automatic, simple, and practical. Experimental results are reported to show the performance of the algorithm on real medical datasets. Though applied here specifically to the colon, the method is general and can be generalized for other volumes.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1016/j.cag.2011.03.008
Computers & Graphics
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Volumetric mapping,Harmonic differential,Virtual colonoscopy,Computer-aided detection
Journal
35
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
3
0097-8493
2
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.39
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Wei Zeng1753.80
Joseph Marino27011.35
Arie Kaufman34154453.50
Xianfeng Gu42997189.71