Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program code for automatically planning at least a part of a surgical procedure to be carried out on a body part of a patient are described. A virtual model of the body part is provided, in which the model has data associated with it representing at least a part of a planned surgical procedure. The virtual model is then morphed to the body part using data derived from the patient's real body part thereby also adapting the part of the planned surgical procedure to reflect the anatomy of the patient's real body part.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus are provided for building a subject-specific statistical model of shape variation for an anatomical structure using a set of geometric representations of shape for the anatomical structure. Each representation is associated with one of multiple subjects, each subject having a respective subset of associated representations, and each subset comprising multiple representations including a reference representation. The multiple representations correspond to different shapes of the anatomical structure arising from physical motion and/or deformation thereof. The method comprises specifying a set of shape parameters whose values, for any given representation, characterize the shape of the representation, and for each subject, representing a probability distribution of the values of the shape parameters across the subset of representations associated with that subject by a set of subject-specific distribution parameters.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus are provided for building a subject-specific statistical model of shape variation for an anatomical structure using a set of geometric representations of shape for the anatomical structure. Each representation is associated with one of multiple subjects, each subject having a respective subset of associated representations, and each subset comprising multiple representations including a reference representation. The multiple representations correspond to different shapes of the anatomical structure arising from physical motion and/or deformation thereof. The method comprises specifying a set of shape parameters whose values, for any given representation, characterise the shape of the representation, and for each subject, representing a probability distribution of the values of the shape parameters across the subset of representations associated with that subject by a set of subject-specific distribution parameters.

Abstract: An embodiment of the invention provides a method and apparatus for registering two medical images with one another. A first medical image including a representation of a biological organ of a subject or for a population is obtained and the surface of the organ is identified in the first medical image. The identified surface is then used to construct a 3D geometric surface model of the organ. The geometric model is used to derive a motion model that incorporates information on the physical material properties of the organ and external forces that cause the organ to move and deform. A second medical image including a representation of the organ of the subject (or another subject, in the case that the first medical image is an atlas image) is obtained and an alignment is determined between a first surface normal vector field for the organ surface, derived from the geometric model, and a second surface normal vector field for the organ surface, derived by filtering the second medical image.

Abstract: An embodiment of the invention provides a method and apparatus for registering two medical images with one another. A first medical image including a representation of a biological organ of a subject or for a population is obtained and the surface of the organ is identified in the first medical image. The identified surface is then used to construct a 3D geometric surface model of the organ. The geometric model is used to derive a motion model that incorporates information on the physical material properties of the organ and external forces that cause the organ to move and deform. A second medical image including a representation of the organ of the subject (or another subject, in the case that the first medical image is an atlas image) is obtained and an alignment is determined between a first surface normal vector field for the organ surface, derived from the geometric model, and a second surface normal vector field for the organ surface, derived by filtering the second medical image.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program code for automatically planning at least a part of a surgical procedure to be carried out on a body part of a patient are described. A virtual model of the body part is provided, in which the model has data associated with it representing at least a part of a planned surgical procedure. The virtual model is then morphed to the body part using data derived from the patient's real body part thereby also adapting the part of the planned surgical procedure to reflect the anatomy of the patient's real body part.