PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To appropriately determine an excision region subject to the excision out of an organ including an abnormal region to be excised.SOLUTION: A smallest enclosing body 52 that encloses an abnormal region 51 is set. A part of an organ belonging to the inside of an elliptic parabolic surface or a circular conic surface that circumscribes the set enclosing body 52, is extracted as a partial region 54. A region 5 of a structure dominating the organ is extracted from the obtained medical image. A part of the organ including the abnormal region and being dominated by a part 55 of the structure extending from a predetermined position in the extracted region of the structure toward the part of the organ including the abnormal region, is extracted as a dominance region 56. The partial region 54 or the dominance region 56 is determined as the excision region based on a predetermined excision region determination condition.COPYRIGHT: (C)2012,JPO&INPIT【課題】切除すべき異常領域を含む臓器のうち、切除する対象となる切除領域を適切に決定する。【解決手段】異常領域51を内包する最小の内包体52を設定し、設定された内包体52に外接する楕円放物面または円錐面の内側に属する臓器部分を部分領域54として抽出し、取得した医用画像から臓器を支配する構造物の領域5を抽出し、抽出された構造物の領域内の所定の位置から異常領域を含む臓器部分側に延びる構造物の一部55により支配される、異常領域を含む臓器部分を支配領域56として抽出し、部分領域54と支配領域56のいずれかを所定の切除領域決定条件に基づいて切除領域として決定する。【選択図】図5
