A Simplified Method to Segment Liver According to Couinaud´s Classification

Couinaud´s classification of liver anatomy has been widely accepted in practice. However realizing this classification effectively is not an easy task. In this paper, a simplified segment method based on the hepatic vessel tree is proposed. This method contains four main steps: vasculature segmentation, 3D thinning, vascular tree pruning and classification, vascular projection and curve fit. The first three steps are to extract and analyze the vasculature from liver CT images; and the fourth step is to segment the liver by separation of vessel systems. We test this method and find that it can actually get the result very approximately to the Couinaud´s classification with high speed.