Rules-based processing and presentation of medical images based on image plane

• US 10,607,341 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2017
• Issued: 03/31/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Merative US LP
• Original Assignee: Merge Healthcare Solutions Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Reicher, Murray A., Fram, Evan K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ansari, Tahmina N
• Application Number:
  US15/469,281
• Publication Number:
  US 20170200269A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,103 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2576/00 Medical imaging apparatus involving image processing or analysis A61B1/00009, A61B6/52 and A61B8/52 take precedence; image processing per se G06T; details of algorithms for analysing medical images G06T7/0012
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7271 Specific aspects of physiological measurement analysis A61B5/316, A61B5/349 and A61B5/374 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2101/00 Indexing scheme relating to the type of digital function generated
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/08 Volume rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/04 involving 3D image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/41 Medical
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/03 Recognition of patterns in medical or anatomical images
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 : characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards

Abstract

Systems and methods that allow transfer and display rules to be defined based on one or more of several attributes, such as a particular user, site, device, and/or image/series characteristic, as well as whether individual images and/or image series are classified as thin slices and/or based on other characteristics, and applied to medical images in order to determine which images and/or image data are analyzed, downloaded, viewed, stored, rendered, processed, and/or any number of other actions that might be performed with respect to medical image data. The system and methods may include image analysis, image rendering, image transformation, image enhancement, and/or other aspects to enable efficient and customized review of medical images.

Claims

1. A system configured to analyze and display medical images, the system comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith; and

one or more processors configured to execute the program instructions to cause the one or more processors to;

access a series of medical images;

analyze the series of medical images to determine an image plane of the series of medical images;

access a user-defined rule indicating an association between the image plane and a user-defined display preference; and

apply the rule to the series of medical images to cause display of the series of medical images according to the user-defined display preference, wherein applying the rule to the series of medical images includes rendering the series of medical images according to a user-defined desired slice thickness associated with the image plane.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-defined display preference includes at least one of:

an image rendering process, an image slice thickness, an image slice increment, a field of view, a window, a level, or a color setting.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein image plane is derived from a DICOM header file.

4. The system of claim 3, the one or more processors configured to analyze the series of medical images to further determine at least one of:

an image series view, a patient'"'"'s age, a medical history, a risk factor, a tissue characteristic, or a modality.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to execute the program instructions to further cause the one or more processors to:

identify a previously displayed series of medical images having the same image plane as the series of medical images;

determine one or more display parameters associated with display of the previously displayed series of medical images; and

designating the one or more display parameters as the user-defined display preference.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein identifying a previously displayed series of medical images comprises:

determining that the previously displayed series of medical images was previously displayed to a same user that the series of medical images are to be displayed to.

7. A computer-implemented method of analyzing and displaying medical images, the method comprising:

by one or more processors executing program instructions;

accessing a series of medical images;

analyzing the series of medical images to determine an image plane of the series of medical images;

accessing a user-defined rule indicating an association between the image plane and a user-defined display preference; and

applying the rule to the series of medical images to cause display of the series of medical images according to the user-defined display preference, wherein applying the rule to the series of medical images includes rendering the series of medical images according to a user-defined desired slice thickness associated with the image plane.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the user-defined display preference includes at least one of:

an image rendering process, an image slice thickness, an image slice increment, a field of view, a window, a level, or a color setting.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the image plane is derived from a DICOM header file.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the method further including analyzing the series of medical images to determine at least one of:

an image series view, a patient'"'"'s age, a medical history, a risk factor, a tissue characteristic, or a modality.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein applying the rule to the series of medical images comprises:

by the one or more processors executing program instructions;

rendering the series of medical images according to a user-defined rule associated with the image plane.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the rule indicates a desired slice thickness.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

by the one or more processors executing program instructions;

identify a previously displayed series of medical images having a same image plane as the series of medical images;

determine one or more display parameters associated with display of the previously displayed series of medical images; and

designating the one or more display parameters as the user-defined display preference.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein identifying a previously displayed series of medical images comprises:

by the one or more processors executing program instructions;

determining that the previously displayed series of medical images was previously displayed to a same user that the series of medical images are to be displayed to.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the program instructions are executable by one or more processors to further cause the one or more processors to:

identify a previously displayed series of medical images having a same image plane as the series of medical images;

determine one or more display parameters associated with display of the previously displayed series of medical images; and

designating the one or more display parameters as the user-defined display preference.

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to:

access a series of medical images;

analyze the series of medical images to determine an image plane of the series of medical images;

access a user-defined rule indicating an association between the image plane and a user-defined display preference; and

apply the rule to the series of medical images to cause display of the series of medical images according to the user-defined display preference, wherein applying the rule to the series of medical images includes rendering the series of medical images according to a user-defined desired slice thickness associated with the image plane.