New method for 3D reconstruction of the human cranial vault from CT-scan data

This study presents a new method for the 3D reconstruction of the human cranial vault from routine
Computed Tomography (CT) data. The reconstruction method was based on the conceptualization of the
shape of the cranial vault with a parametric description. An initialization was first realized with the identification
of anatomical landmarks and contours on Digitally Reconstructed Radiographs (DRR) in order
to obtain a pre-personalized reconstruction. Then an optimization of the reconstruction was performed
to segment the internal and external surfaces of the cranial vault for thickness computation. The method
was validated by comparing final reconstructions issued from our approach and from a manual sliceby-
slice segmentation method on ten CT-scans. Errors were comparable to the CT image resolution, and
less than 2 min were dedicated to the operatordependant marking step. The reconstruction of internal
and external surfaces of the cranial vault allows quantifying and visualizing of thickness throughout the
cranial vault. This thickness mapping is useful for clinical purposes as additional pre-surgical information.
Moreover, this study constitutes a first step in the personalized characterization of skull resistance
directly from routine exams.