Automatic head CT images prescriptions and reformations

In this paper, we developed an automatic method to implement a new head CT clinical protocol that currently manually performed by neuroradiologists. The proposed method is composed of three steps. At first, automatically detect the mid-sagittal plane in three-dimensional head images. The algorithm computed similarity measures between the two sides of the head. We defined the mid-sagittal plane as exhibiting maximum symmetry with respect to the image volume. The choice of the initial plane is crucial to success of the algorithm. Therefore, we estimated the initial mid-sagittal plane as the plane passing through the principal axes of the head. Secondly, automatically extract hard palate on the reformatted mid-sagittal plane and angle 12 degrees from hard palate. Finally, according to the clinical protocol, reformatted axial slices and maxillofacial coronal image that perpendicular to the hard palate were generated. Results were evaluated by visual inspection by neuroradiologist and were judged to be consistently correct.