Method and system for retrieving a medical picture

• US 20040101177A1
• Filed: 11/21/2002
• Published: 05/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Schneider, Siegfried, Zahlmann, Gudrun, Schmidt, Volker
• Granted Patent: US 7,194,119 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

In a method and system for retrieving a medical image from a data base, an image processing algorithm is applied to a first medical image. The result of the applied image processing algorithm to the first medical image is compared with a plurality of results being stored in a data base. Each result of the plurality of results is the result of the image-processing algorithm being applied to each medical image of a plurality of medical images which is stored in the data base. Then, a second medical image belonging to the plurality of medical images is determined and retrieved from the data base, wherein the relevant result is comparable to the relevant result related to the first medical image.

Claims

1. A method for retrieving a medical picture, comprising the steps of:

applying an image processing algorithm to a first medical picture to obtain a first processing result;

applying said image processing algorithm to each medical picture of a set of medical pictures stored in a data base to obtain a second processing result, said set not containing said first medical picture;

comparing the first processing result with each second processing result; and

retrieving from said data base a second medical picture, a picture in said set of medical pictures having a second processing result comparable to the first processing result.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising, after retrieving said second medical picture from said data base, the step of:

displaying said second medical picture with its second processing result.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising, after retrieving said second medical picture from said data base, the step of:

displaying the first processing result.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising, after retrieving said second medical picture from said data base, the step of:

displaying said second medical picture with its second processing result and displaying the first processing result.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising, after retrieving said second medical picture from said data base, the step of:

displaying said second medical picture with information of a diagnosis associated with said second medical picture, said information being stored with said second medial picture in said data base.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising, before applying said image processing algorithm to said first medical picture, the step of:

determining a region of interest in said first medical picture; and

wherein the step of applying said image processing algorithm to said first medical picture comprising applying said image processing algorithm to said region of interest of said first medical picture.

7. A method for retrieving a medical image from a data base, comprising the steps of:

applying an image processing algorithm to a first medical image to obtain a first processing result;

comparing the first processing result with a plurality of second processing results which is stored in a data base, each second processing result being a result of said image processing algorithm applied to each medical image of a plurality of medical images, not including said first medical image, which is stored in said data base;

determining a second medical image in said plurality of medical images having a second processing result comparable to the first processing result; and

retrieving said second medical image from said data base.

8. The method of claim 7, comprising, after retrieving said second medical Image from said data base, the step of:

displaying said second medical image with its second processing result.

9. The method of claim 7, comprising, after retrieving said second medical image from said data base, the step of:

displaying the first processing result.

10. The method of claim 7, comprising, after retrieving said second medical image from said data base, the step of:

displaying said second medical image with its second processing result and displaying the first processing result.

11. The method of claim 7, comprising, after retrieving said second medical image from said data base, the step of:

displaying said second medical image with information of a diagnosis associated with said second medical image, said information being stored with said second medial image in said data base.

12. The method of claim 7, comprising, before applying said image processing algorithm to said first medical image, the step of:

determining a region of interest in said first medical image; and

wherein the step of applying said image processing algorithm to said first medical image comprising applying said image processing algorithm to said region of interest of said first medical image.

13. A system comprising:

a data processing unit configured to store a first medical image, to apply an image processing algorithm to said first medical image, and to obtain a first result due to the applied said image processing algorithm to said first medical image;

a data base operatively coupled to said data processing unit, said data base comprising a plurality of medical images, not including said first medical image, and a plurality of second results, each second result in said plurality of results being a result of applying said image processing algorithm to each medical image of said plurality of medical images;

said data processing unit further being configured to compare said first result with each second result and to retrieve a second medical image from said data base from among said plurality of images having a second result comparable to said first result.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein:

said data processing unit is configured to retrieve, in addition to said second medical image, the second result for said second medical image.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein:

said data base contains, for each medical image of said plurality of medical images information about a diagnosis associated with each medical image of said plurality of medical images; and

said data processing being configured to retrieve, in addition to said second medical image, the information associated therewith in said data base.