A method of geometrical distortion correction in 3d images

\u3cp\u3eA method of correcting local distortions in 3D images, particularly medical 3D images, caused by a scanning system used for acquisition of the 3D images, is disclosed. According to an embodiment, a 3D phantom containing reference structures that are positioned at known reference positions is scanned. Then the resulting positions of the phantom reference structures in the 3D image are detected and the 3D image is subdivided into 3D sub- volumes, called patches. Subsequently the detected positions of the reference structures are compared to the known reference positions for each patch, and for each patch having distortions existing between known reference and detected positions, the distortion is described with a local 3D transformation according to the invention. Finally, medical images that are subsequently scanned are corrected with the local 3D transformations.\u3c/p\u3