A Method for Volume Estimation by Using Vector Areas and Centroids of Serial Cross Sections

A technique is developed to estimate the volume of an organ from its cross-sectional images. It is applicable even if each section is multiply-connected or not parallel with the others. The volume is calculated by using the vector areas and the centroids of serial sections. When ten sections were used, it estimated the volumes of computer-generated phantoms at an error of less than 3 percent, using six-different cutting modes. The technique may be efficiently applicable to the two-dimensional ultrasound images.