Fast 3D centerline computation for tubular structures by front collapsing and fast marching

In this work, we propose a fast approach to compute centerlines from 3D tubular domains. This technique is based on the distance transform (DT) from the object boundaries, whose implementation together with an efficient technique to detect the points where the DT collapse, allow to obtain an initial centerline, very close to the final solution. This initial centerline and the DT computed, are used in a second step to obtain a connected, one voxel thick centerline, with a fast marching approach. The method proposed here is accurate, computationally efficient, fully automatic, is able to account for loops, and also obtains the bifurcation and end points automatically.