Figure 9.  Segmentation of the blood vessel network, exemplified for biopsy (V).
(a) Series of slices in z-direction illustrate the separation of a capillary (≈5μm diameter) from a blood vessel. Red arrow marks the separating capillary. In slice 314, the capillary is entirely filled with erythrocytes. (b) Red lines in the entire virtual slice (336) represent the contours of a manual segmentation of the blood vessel network. Three capillaries already separated from the main vessel, while the fourth starts to emerge, indicated by the red arrow. (c) Segmentation illustrating the 3D structure of the blood vessel network. Scale bars: 50⁢μ⁢m.