Medical Image Observation Assisting System

• US 20090161927A1
• Filed: 02/17/2007
• Published: 06/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nagoya University
• Original Assignee: Nagoya University
• Inventors: Mori, Kensaku, Deguchi, Daisuke, Kitasaka, Takayuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,199,984 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/466 adapted to display 3D data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10081 Computed x-ray tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30061 Lung
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/74 involving reference images or patches

Abstract

[Means for Achieving the Object] Medical image observation assisting system 1 including CT-image-data retrieving portion 10, CT-image-data storing portion 11, information extracting portion 12, anatomical information DB 13, point of view/line of view setting portion 14, luminal organ image generating portion 15, anatomical nomenclature information generating portion 16, branch specifying portion 17, image synthesizing and displaying portion 18 and user I/F control portion 19. The point of view/line of view setting portion 14 sets a point of view and line of view for observing an external profile of a luminal organ, on the basis of structure information of the luminal organ extracted by the information extracting portion 12, while the point of view is kept substantially on a centerline of the organ.

Claims

1. A medical image observation assisting system characterized by comprising:

volume-region setting means for sequentially setting volume regions each enveloping a part of a luminal organ extending within a subject body, on the basis of three-dimensional image data of the subject body, such that the volume regions are adjacent to each other;

luminal-organ-region-information calculating means for repeatedly calculating luminal region data in the form of region information of said part of the luminal organ within each of said volume regions set by said volume-region setting means, on the basis of the three-dimensional image data of the part of the luminal organ within said volume region;

luminal-organ-structure-information calculating means for calculating luminal structure data in the form of structure information of the part of the luminal organ within the volume region for which said luminal region data has been calculated by said luminal-organ-region-information calculating means;

virtual-centerline generating means for generating a virtual centerline extending in a longitudinal direction of said luminal organ, on the basis of said luminal structure data;

virtual-image generating means for generating a virtual image of said luminal organ along said virtual centerline;

display means for displaying said virtual image of said luminal organ; and

observing-position specifying means for determining an observing position for generating said virtual image, on the basis of at least one of said virtual centerline, said luminal region data and said luminal structure data, such that a region of said luminal organ displayed on said display means has a desired size, and for moving said observing position in the longitudinal direction of said luminal organ, on the basis of said virtual centerline or said luminal structure data.

2. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 1 further comprising:

anatomical-structure-information storing means for storing anatomical structure information including at least anatomical nomenclature information; and

anatomical-nomenclature correlating means for correlating the anatomical nomenclature information stored in said anatomical-structure-information storing means, with said luminal structure data.

3. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 2, further comprising image synthesizing means for displaying anatomical nomenclature information of said luminal organ on the virtual image displayed on said display means, on the basis of said anatomical nomenclature information which is correlated with said luminal structure data, by said anatomical-nomenclature correlating means.

4. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 2, wherein said virtual-image generating means changes a method of processing said virtual image of the luminal organ, on the basis of said anatomical structure information or said luminal structure data.

5. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 1, further comprising:

endoscope-position detecting means for detecting a relative position of a leading end portion of an endoscope actually inserted into said luminal organ of said subject body; and

first real-image observing-position estimating means for comparing the position of the leading end portion of the endoscope detected by said endoscope-position detecting means, with said organ structure data, to thereby estimate a real-image observing position which is a position of the leading end portion of said endoscope within said luminal organ.

6. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 1, further comprising:

virtual-image storing means for storing each of the plurality of virtual images generated by said virtual-image generating means, which each virtual image includes a bifurcated portion of said luminal organ, such that said each virtual image is correlated with said luminal structure data corresponding to said each virtual image; and

second real-image observing-position estimating means for extracting features which appear on a real endoscope image taken by an endoscope actually inserted into said luminal organ of said subject body and which correspond to the luminal structure data, verifying the extracted features against or with respect to the luminal structure data stored in said virtual-image storing means, and estimating the observing position of the virtual image corresponding to the luminal structure data verified to match the extracted features, as the observing position of said real endoscope image.

7. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 3, wherein said image synthesizing means displays a real endoscope image taken by an endoscope actually inserted into said luminal organ of said subject body and said virtual image which corresponds to said real endoscope image and which is generated by said virtual-image generating means such that said real endoscope image and said virtual image can be compared with each other.

8. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 5, wherein said virtual-image generating means generates said virtual image such that said real-image observing position estimated by said first real-image observing-position estimating means is determined as said observing position of the virtual image.

9. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 6, wherein said virtual-image generating means generates said virtual image such that said real-image observing position estimated by said second real-image observing-position estimating means is determined as said observing position of the virtual image.

10. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 3, wherein said image synthesizing means displays said anatomical nomenclature of said luminal organ on a real endoscope image displayed on said display means, on the basis of correlation of said anatomical nomenclature by said anatomical-nomenclature correlating means, said real endoscope image being taken by an endoscope actually inserted into said luminal organ of said subject body.

11. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 6, wherein said virtual image and said real endoscope image corresponding to said luminal structure data have at least one feature selected from the number of luminally structural portions, the positions of the luminally structural portions, and the luminosity of the image of the luminally structural portions.

12. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 6, wherein said virtual-image storing means comprises virtual-image learning means for implementing learning modification of contents of said virtual-image storing means, on the basis of a result of the verification of the extracted features with respect to the luminal structure data by the second real-image observing-position estimating means.

13. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 7, further comprising:

navigating means for displaying an image for navigating a path from a position of insertion of an endoscope into said luminal organ to a target portion of the luminal organ,

and wherein said navigating means displays an indication of one of a plurality of branches of said luminal organ open at a bifurcated portion thereof indicated on the image displayed on said display means, said endoscope being advanced into said one of the plurality of branches.

14. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 7, further comprising:

navigating means for displaying an image for navigating a path from a position of insertion of an endoscope into said luminal organ to a target portion of the luminal organ,

and wherein said navigating means automatically generates said path, and displays a plurality of anatomical names correlated by said anatomical-nomenclature correlating means with respective organs of the luminal organs defining said path, in the order from said position of insertion of the endoscope to said target portion.

15. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 1, further comprising:

extraluminal tissue extracting means for extracting extraluminal tissue structure information relating to a structure of an extraluminal tissue existing outside said luminal organ in said subject body, on the basis of said three-dimensional image data,

and wherein said virtual-image generating means commands said display means to display the virtual image of said luminal organ and a virtual image of said extraluminal tissue within the same screen in the same scale while maintaining an actual positional relationship between the virtual images.

16. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 15, further comprising:

anatomical-structure-information storing means for storing anatomical structure information including at least anatomical nomenclature information for said luminal organ and at least an anatomical number for said extraluminal tissue; and

anatomical-nomenclature correlating means for correlating the anatomical nomenclature information of said luminal organ stored in said anatomical-structure-information storing means, with said luminal structure data, and for correlating the anatomical number of said extraluminal tissue stored in the anatomical-structure-information storing means, with said extraluminal tissue structure information.

17. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 16, further comprising:

image synthesizing means for displaying anatomical name of said luminal organ and the anatomical number of said extraluminal tissue on the virtual images displayed on said display means, on the basis of said anatomical nomenclature information and said anatomical number which are correlated with said luminal structure data and said extraluminal tissue structure information by said anatomical-nomenclature correlating means.

18. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 16, wherein said virtual-image generating means changes an image processing method on the basis of at least one of said anatomical structure information, said luminal structure data and said extraluminal tissue structure information.

19. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 13, wherein when said extraluminal tissue is set as a pseudo-target portion, said navigating means sets a portion of said luminal organ which is located close to an extraluminal tissue existing outside said luminal organ in said subject body and into which said endoscope can be inserted, as said target portion of said luminal organ.

20. The medical image observation assisting system according to claim 15, wherein said extraluminal tissue is a lymph node, while said luminal organ is a blood vessel.