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Abstract

Provided is a method and apparatus for segmenting airways and pulmonary lobes. An image processing apparatus obtains a first candidate region of an airway from a three-dimensional (3D) human body image by using a region growing method, obtains a second candidate region of the airway based on a directionality of a change in signal intensity of voxels belonging to a lung region segmented from the 3D human body image, segments an airway region by removing noise based on similarity of a directionality of a change in signal intensity of voxels belonging to a third candidate region acquired by combining together the first and second candidate regions. Furthermore, the image processing apparatus segments a lung region from a 3D human body image by using a region growing method, obtains a fissure candidate group between pulmonary lobes based on a directionality of a change in signal intensity of voxels belonging to the lung region, reconstructs an image of the lung region including the fissure candidate group into an image viewed from a front side of a human body and generates a virtual fissure based on a fissure candidate group shown in the reconstructed image, and segments the pulmonary lobes by using the virtual fissure.

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