SYSTEM FOR ASSESSING RADIATION TREATMENT PLAN SEGMENTATIONS
First Claim
1. An apparatus for automatically assessing radiation therapy segmentations comprising an electronic computer executing a stored program to:
- (a) receive a first and second electronic file each providing data points describing different three-dimensional surfaces circumscribing a structure in a human or animal patient intended for radiation therapy;
(b) generate a first and second volume model defined by the different three-dimensional surfaces of the first and second electronic file respectively;
(c) compare the first and second volume model to identify;
(i) common volume elements in common to both of the first and second volume models;
(ii) missing volume elements of the first volume model that are not in the second volume model;
(iii) extra volume elements of the second volume model that are not in the first volume model;
(d) output an indication of a conformance between the three-dimensional surfaces circumscribing the structure defined by the first and second electronic files based on a metric method of measuring volumes of the missing volume elements and extra volume elements;
whereby segmentation represented by the second electronic file may be evaluated.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Segmentations used to describe structures to be treated by radiotherapy are evaluated by converting the segmentations into volume models and examining volume elements that are extra or missing in the volume model of the second segmentation with respect to the volume model of the first segmentation. This characterization of volume elements may be displayed graphically to show differences in segmentations for training or evaluation purposes and may be quantified by a metric method tallying volume elements as optionally weighted by distance from volume elements shared by the segmentation.
-
Citations
18 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for automatically assessing radiation therapy segmentations comprising an electronic computer executing a stored program to:
-
(a) receive a first and second electronic file each providing data points describing different three-dimensional surfaces circumscribing a structure in a human or animal patient intended for radiation therapy; (b) generate a first and second volume model defined by the different three-dimensional surfaces of the first and second electronic file respectively; (c) compare the first and second volume model to identify; (i) common volume elements in common to both of the first and second volume models; (ii) missing volume elements of the first volume model that are not in the second volume model; (iii) extra volume elements of the second volume model that are not in the first volume model; (d) output an indication of a conformance between the three-dimensional surfaces circumscribing the structure defined by the first and second electronic files based on a metric method of measuring volumes of the missing volume elements and extra volume elements; whereby segmentation represented by the second electronic file may be evaluated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A method for automatically assessing radiation therapy segmentations comprising using an electronic computer executing stored program to perform the steps of:
-
(a) receiving a first and second electronic file each providing data points describing different three-dimensional surfaces circumscribing a structure in a human or animal patient intended for radiation therapy; (b) generating a first and second volume model defined by the different three-dimensional surfaces of the first and second electronic files respectively; (c) comparing the first and second volume model to identify; (i) common volume elements in common to both of the first and second volume models; (ii) missing volume elements of the first volume model that are not in the second volume model; (iii) extra volume elements of the second volume model that are not in the first volume model; (d) outputting a measure of a conformance between the three-dimensional surfaces circumscribing the structure defined by the first and second electronic files, based on a metric method of numbers of missing volume elements and extra volume elements; whereby a segmentation represented by the second electronic file may be evaluated.
-
- 14. The method of claim 14 wherein the first and second volume model are constructed by identifying a set of voxels within the three-dimensional surfaces, and wherein the step of comparing the first and second volume models evaluates each voxel of a union of the set of voxels of the three-dimensional surfaces on a voxel by voxel basis to identify the missing and extra volume elements.
- 16. The method of claim 16 wherein the common volume elements are displayed as green, the missing volume elements are displayed as blue and the extra volume elements are displayed as red.
Specification