Creation of statistical atlas of nasal cavity from computed tomography scans

A statistical atlas is created based on the average and variations of a set of data. Statistical atlases are found to be able to provide reference navigation models for the nasal cavity. An innovative method of constructing a statistical atlas that requires a short amount of time to execute, yet having a relatively high accuracy has been developed. This study examines the existing approaches to construct a statistical atlas of the human nasal cavity, as well as the suggested improvements. A statistical atlas that focuses specifically on the pathway from the nostrils to the nasopharynx has been created. The shape variations of this pathway can also be observed from the statistical atlas. For the purpose of this study, 47 sets of patient data have been analyzed. In the future, two separate statistical atlases for the different genders can be created.