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Keppel
Abstract: An algorithm is described for obtaining an optimal approximation, using triangulation, of a three-dimensional surface de-
fined by randomly distributed points along contour lines. The combinatorial problem of finding the best arrangement of triangles is
treated by assuming an adequate objective function. The optimal triangulation is found using classical methods of graph theory. An il-
lustrative example gives the procedure for triangulation of contour fines of a human head for use in radiation therapy planning.
Introduction
In many branches of applied science, an important prob- and of relevant heterogeneous zones, such as the lungs,
lem concerns the mathematical description provided by bones or air gaps. The usual form under which anatomi-
a set of points on a three-dimensional surface. The cal measurements of a patient can be rapidly made avail-
choice between accurate but time-consuming surface- able consists of body contour lines in several parallel
fitting procedures and the simpler but more flexible planar cross sections drawn in life size on paper. The
numerical approximation methods depends essentially boundaries of important heterogeneities inside the body
on the practical needs and requirements in the field of can be added from anatomical atlases and fitted to the
application. proper scale with the help of x-ray photographs. For the
A specific area of biomedicine requiring surface ap- digital handling of these curves a sequence of coordinates
proximation is computer-assisted three-dimensional ra- is carefully selected along the contour lines.
diation therapy planning [ I]. Briefly, the aim of surface The major problem consists in the numerical represen-
approximation in radiation treatment is as follows. The tation of the anatomical boundaries in the computer. A
radiation energy absorbed by the body strongly depends compromise must be established between accuracy of ap-
on the thickness and the density of the tissue penetrated proximation and simplicity of mathematical handling. A
by the beam ray. The therapeutic irradiation of cancer- suitable approach for constructing a numerical model from
ous cells requires careful individual planning to ensure the contour line measurements consists in the approxima-
that despite the variations of the human anatomy the tion of the anatomical boundaries by triangulation. This
adequate dose of radiation covers the tumor volume to method, as shown in Fig. 1, consists in joining points
be treated, whereas the surrounding healthy tissue is of neighboring contour lines to triangles in such a man-
properly spared excessive exposure. The planning ne- ner that one obtains triangular planar elements which
cessitates the availability of a reliable individual geo- delimit a polyhedron approximating the surface of
metrical model of the patient's body for a computer sim- interest.
ulation of the treatment dosimetry. Although the advantages of this model for medical
In the routine practice of radiation therapy the accu- computing purposes were recognized some time ago [2],
racy of dosage calculations depends in large measure on attempts at realization for three-dimensional therapy
2 the adequacy of the description of body irregularities planning computations were abandoned because no reli-
hedron, the volume of which is to be maximized (or
minimized), is that formed with the origin A and 0B of
the x-y coordinate system in the contour planes and the
contour point subsections of interest. A and 0B may be
x arbitrarily located, since the volumes are algebraically
oriented. Figure 2 describes the decomposition of the
total polyhedron volume into additive subvolumes and
justifies the iterative scheme presented here.
We now show for later use that an elementary expres-
Figure 2 Example of iterative decomposition of a set of con- sion can be derived for the volume of the polyhedron
tour points S = {AI' A 2 , " 'A 22 } into alternately concave and con-
vex subsets. originated by a fixed triangulation of any contour line.
We consider the example shown in Fig. 3. A decomposi-
I. convex subset Sl = {Al'A 2 , A 3 , A"A g,A 9 , A 10' A 11'A 12 , tion of the polyhedron A 1AzA3"', A mB1B2B3,, B n into
A 20 , A 21 , A 22 } pentahedrons pa =Ar4i+l BjOAOB and pb ==AiBjBj+10 AOB'
2. concave subsets S,' = {A 3 , A 4 , A 5 , A 6 , A,}, with i = I to m and j = I to n, for the total volume may be
1
S.'
= {A 12' A 14, AI" AlB' A 20 } . written as
3. convex subsets S3 = {A 12' A 13' A 14},
Sa' = {A 14' A 15' A 16' AI'}'
and S:"= {AlB' A 19 , A 20 } . V T OT = 2: Vol (pa) + 2: Vol (pb). (2)
a b
A triangulation criterion for purely convex contour The superscript a represents the pentahedrons having a
lines is now formulated. Let two convex sets of contour triangular face Ar4i+lBj with two vertices from the con-
points Sa = {AI' A 2, A 3,' .., Am} and Sb = {BI' B 2, B 3,' .., tour point set Sa, and the superscript b similarly repre-
B n } , and a trial triangulation between them be given, as sents the pentahedrons with two vertices Bj and Bj +1
shown in Fig. 3. Let us consider the polyhedron A 1AzA3' from the set s: A further partitioning of each pentahed-
..., A mB1B2B3, .., B n originated by this triangle arrange- ron pa or pb into tetrahedrons is
ment. We assume the following objective function for
a(Ar4i+l
optimal triangulation of the two convex contour lines Sa pa(Ar4i+1BjOAOB) = T1 Bj OB)
and s: + T2
a(Ar4i+1040B)'
The triangulation which maximizes the volume of the
polyhedron A 1A2A3, .., A mB1B2B3, .., B n gives the opti-
mal approximation of the surface provided by a pair of pb(AiBjBj+PAOB) = T/(AjBjBj+10A)
closed convex contour lines. + T 2!'(BjB j+10,OB)'
This objective function also extends obviously to con-
cave contour point subsets. We consider Fig. 2 as an ex-
ample of an arbitrarily flexed contour line, containing con- Equation (2) then becomes a summation over four kinds
cave sequences of contour points. We suppose the vol- of tetrahedrons:
ume of any polyhedron A 1AzA3' .., A mB1B2I!3' .., B n to VT OT =2: Vol (T 1
a
) +2: Vol (T 1
b
) +Ca+C b'
be algebraically oriented such that the volume is positive a b
for an anticlockwise sequence of the vertex points, and where the two last terms
otherwise negative. (Let BI' B 2 , , B n be a contour m-l
point set similar to AI' A 2, ..., Am of Fig. 2.) One can Ca = 2: Vol [T2
a(Ar4i+1
0AOB)],
then see that concave contour sections, as for example i=l
(3 a)
b ~ ~ ~
Vol (T I (AiBjBj+l 0A)) =HOABj x 0ABj+I)OAAi
b
= vi j (3b)
a _ (ZB ZA) (X Ay A A A
1. A triangle necessarily shares two consecutive contour
(4a) points, either in set Sa or in set s: This means that
I
Vi j -"3 - i i+1 - X i +1 Yi '
and (4b), as
2: aij ::: 1 and 2: a ij ::: I. (7)
i=1 j=l
1
described by the following three properties of the matrix 1 n-l
elements: o 1 n 5
(l
Vi j v(N i) v(P i j, Pi+!. j) Vi} , or
b
= v(Pij' Pi. j+l) Vi j (10)
( 13)
( b)
convex and concave contour sections. Figure 5(a) will
serve us as example for the iterative decomposition of Figure 5 (a). Example of triangulation for the general case of
the triangulation process. two arbitrarily flexed contour lines defined by So" = {A l ' A 2 , " ' ,
A ,z } and Sob {8 ", B ,o}' (b) Graph associated with the
1. The first step has already been exhaustively treated contour-point subsets" SI {A" A z , A 7 , A" A", A ,2} and S,b
above: The point subset S/' {Al' A 2 , A 7 , Ax' All' {B 8 2 , B 5 , 8", 8 1 , B., B",} of Fig. 5(aj and taken for the first
"
iteration step of the triangulation algorithm, The path 11', maxi-
A l z } of the upper contour SOli and the subset S/) = mizing the polyhedron volume is indicated by large arrows, The
{BI' B z' B", B 6 , B 7 , B x' BIll} of the lower contour SOb subgraphs G I and handled in the next iteration step are
shaded.
provide two convex contour lines for which the algo-
rithm holds literally. The subsets 51" and SIIJ are de-
termined by repeated application of the circle test for
curvature sign. The graph G associated with the set
5/' and 51" is presented in 5(b). We assume that
the path 7f l traced in G has been obtained by maxi- In the first case, the points A 2 , A 7' B z ' and B 5 which
mizing expression ( II). The corresponding triangula- delimit the boundaries of the omitted contour sec-
tion is then entered into Fig. 5(a) . tions are mutually joined by the segments A 2 B 2 and
2. The second phase of the general algorithm handles A 7 B 5 Thus, the point subsets 52" = {A z' A 3 , A 6 , A 1 }
the triangulation at the omitted sections of the con- and S/' {B 2 , B:l' B 4 , B o} are clearly to be triangulat-
tour lines. Figure 5 (a) illustrates the two principal ed next. The interpretation by graph G in Fig. 5(b)
cases to be distinguished by the selection procedure indicates the computational method. If the vertices
for the next iteration steps. PZ, 2 and P7 , 5 are contained in the path 7f1' they delim- 7
+
+++++T++++"++
+++'---'-t+++++t+
++++++++++'-++
+++ ...... t + + + + + t . f .
3 bL~-i::i{;"i7;0f)jvt.. 1 + + + + 1
6 + ++++++ ++
++++++++++
10
14
-c 20
~
" 25
0
E 26
0
0
.0 27
~
28
29 0
30 0
35
1
9
Figure 11 Convex contour sections handled during the second Figure 12 shows the three-dimensional representation
iteration of the triangulation. Each section corresponds to a of the totally triangulated contour tines of Fig. 6. One
shaded submatrix in Fig. 10. Definitively fixed triangles result-
ing from the previous iteration are indicated in the drawing. may note the removing of the hidden triangles from the
display screen. The most useful property of the triangu-
lated model is to provide a description of surfaces par-
ticularly well adapted for graphical visualization on a
display terminal. The possibility of manipulating three-
dimensional anatomical figures under visual control moti-
umns and rows corresponding to deferred contour points vated the development of the planning system in a highly
are crossed out to show the state of the matrix during interactive way. The accuracy of any particular represen-
the first iteration step. The backtrack chain of pointers tation depends on how many contour lines are used to
in Fig. 10 permits determination of the remaining con- describe the three-dimensional object, how many contour
tour sections that are candidates for the next iteration points are selected for each line, and how they are dis-
steps. The program determines all occurrences of point- tributed.
er "jumps" over deferred rows and columns. Two con-
secutivejumps delimit a submatrix that corresponds to a
nontriangulated contour section pair. In Fig. 10, six
submatrices have been recognized by the program. They Acknowledgment
correspond to six separate convex contour sections to The author is indebted to W. A. Hunt for having directed
be handled next; these are shown in Fig. 11. The pro- his attention to the subject of this paper.
gram processes this second iteration step in nearly com-
plete analogy to the first one and can loop over the same
program section.
References and note
The triangulation is completed at the end of the third it- 1. Computers in Radiology, Proceedings of the Fourth Inter-
eration step. This last step handles only the remaining national Conference on the Use of Computers in Radiation
short concave sections visible on Fig. 11. The backtrack Therapy, Uppsala, Sweden, August 7-11, 1972.
2. To the best of our knowledge no publication exists on this
chain of binary pointers is then complete in the matrix of subject. In the field of biomedicine, the triangulation tech-
Fig. 10. The program finally generates the corresponding nique was proposed by several researchers, of which Dr.
list of contour point triples, which indicates the final U. Rosenow (Gottingen, W. Germany) and Dr. J. Weinkam
(St. Louis, USA) are known to the author. Dr. W. A. Hunt
triangulation obtained for the considered pair of cross (I BM Houston, USA) elaborated upon a triangulation
10 sections. method which fails, however, for complex surfaces.
11