Automated patient couch removal algorithm on CT images

The current paper proposes a novel automated patient couch removal method on Computed Tomography (CT) images. Patient couch is often considered to be an unnecessary artifact especially when 3D rendered techniques are used. The method is based on measuring similarity between selected axial slices and the assumption that the bed object is constant on different slices. Due to the weight of the patient the couch could bend which is identifiable as sagittal movement on consecutive axial slices. Therefore the method focuses on finding this movement after an initial segmentation. According to initial validation performed on real medical data, our method is an effective tool to remove patient couch without user interaction.