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Automatic detection of lung nodules from high resolution CT images

  • US 20020028008A1
  • Filed: 04/23/2001
  • Published: 03/07/2002
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2000
  • Status: Abandoned Application
First Claim
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1. A method for automatically detecting lung nodules from Multi-Slice High Resolution Computed Tomography (MSHR CT) images, comprising the steps of:

  • defining a volume of interest (VOI) for moving through a lung volume in an MSHR CT image, based on MSHR CT image data;

    examining the lung volume using the VOI, including, determining a local histogram of intensity inside the VOI; and

    determining adaptive threshold values for segmenting the VOI to obtain seeds;

    examining each of the seeds to detect the lung nodules therefrom, including, segmenting anatomical structures represented by the seeds by applying a segmentation method to the seeds that adaptively adjusts a segmentation threshold value based on a local histogram analysis of the seeds to extract the anatomical structures based on three-dimensional connectivity and intensity information corresponding to the local histogram; and

    classifying each of the segmented, anatomical structures as one of a lung nodule or a non-nodule, based on a priori knowledge corresponding to the lung nodules and related, pre-defined anatomical structures;

    displaying the lung nodules; and

    analyzing the lung nodules, including, automatically quantifying features of the lung nodules to provide an automatic detection decision for each of the lung nodules.

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