Vessel Segmentation
The Vessel Segmentation module allows you to:
- Preprocess an image (usually a contrast enhanced image - from the late portal phase) to enhance the visibility of vessels
- Place 2 seeds (1st for location, 2nd for direction) inside the vessels and create segmentations of the portal and hepatic vessels starting from the seed location
- Place 1 seed in an overlapping area between portal and hepatic segmentations, in order to assign it to either portal or hepatic
Below is a short tutorial:
The UI on the sidebar for the Vessel Segmentation module looks like this:
Image Preprocessing
The first thing you need to do is load an image, and then select it as the active volume (at the top of the module's UI).
Then you can change the parameters for preprocessing the image, and press the "pre-process image" button. The preprocessing may take some time to run, depending on the size of the image it may take several minutes but will be much faster if the ITK in Slicer is compiled with GPU acceleration turned on.
Then, you should select the preprocessed image as your active volume. If you are satisfied with how the preprocessing has enhanced the contrast with the vessels in your image, then you can proceed to the next part of the UI (otherwise select the original image again, and try different parameters).
Vessel Segmentation
Choose the appropriate radio button for segmenting the hepatic or portal vein. Then, click the "place 2 seeds" button. You should then find a location to mark the start of the vessel segmentation (from the top of the vessel down); the first time you click on the image you will be placing a seed to mark the start and the second time you click you will give a point slightly further down the vessel to indicate a direction for the segmentation.
Hepatic and Portal Splitting