Systems and Methods for Automated Segmentation, Visualization and Analysis of Medical Images

• US 20070276214A1
• Filed: 11/26/2004
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Viatronix, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Viatronix, Inc.
• Inventors: Cai, Wenli, Meissner, Michael, Chen, Dongqing, Dachille, Frank
• Application Number:
  US10/580,763
• Publication Number:
  US 20070276214A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/41 Medical
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/008 Cut plane or projection plane definition
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• 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

Abstract

An imaging system for automated segmentation and visualization of medical images (100) includes an image processing module (107) for automatically processing image data using a set of directives (109) to identify a target object in the image data and process the image data according to a specified protocol, a rendering module (105) for automatically generating one or more images of the target object based on one or more of the directives (109) and a digital archive (110) for storing the one or more generated images. The image data may be DICOM-formatted image data (103), wherein the imaging processing module (107) extracts and processes meta-data in DICOM fields of the image data to identify the target object. The image processing module (107) directs a segmentation module (108) to segment the target object using processing parameters specified by one or more of the directives (109).

Claims

1. A method for processing image data, comprising:

obtaining image data;

automatically processing the image data using a set of directives to identify a target object in the image data and process the image data according to a specified protocol; and

automatically generating one or more images of the target object based on one or more of the directives; and

storing the one or more generated images in a digital archive.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the image data comprises DICOM-formatted image data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein automatically processing the image data using a set of directives comprises processing meta-data in DICOM fields to identify the target object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically processing the image data comprises segmenting the target object using processing parameters specified by one or more of the directives.

5. An imaging system, comprising:

an image processing module for automatically processing image data using a set of directives to identify a target object in the image data and process the image data according to a specified protocol; and

a rendering module for automatically generating one or more images of the target object based on one or more of the directives; and

a digital archive for storing the one or more generated images.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the image data comprises DICOM-formatted image data.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the imaging processing module extracts and processes meta-data in DICOM fields of the image data to identify the target object.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the image processing module directs a segmentation module to segment the target object using processing parameters specified by one or more of the directives.