DETERMINING EFFICACY OF THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION IN NEUROSYCHIATRIC DISEASE

• US 20090316969A1
• Filed: 06/18/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kraemer, James R., Angell, Robert Lee, Friedlander, Robert R., Fueyo, Joanna Lynn
• Granted Patent: US 8,126,228 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/131
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/037 Emission tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/501 for diagnosis of the head, e.g. neuroimaging or craniography
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20104 Interactive definition of region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30016 Brain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/70 relating to mental therapies, e.g. psychological therapy or autogenous training
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for determining the efficacy of neuropsychiatric therapy is provided. A neuroimage mapping manager automatically compares a first set of regions of interest in a first set of scans taken at a first time to a second set of regions of interest in a second set of scans generated at a second time and identifies a set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time. The neuroimage mapping manager searches a set of electronic medical literature sources for medical literature relevant to the set of changes in the regions of interest and identifies portions of the relevant medical literature associated with the set of changes in the regions of interest. The neuroimage mapping manager generates results comprising the set of changes in the regions of interest and a set of links to the portions of the relevant medical literature.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for determining the efficacy of neuropsychiatric therapy, the computer implemented method comprising:

automatically comparing a first set of regions of interest in a first set of scans taken at a first time to a second set of regions of interest in a second set of scans generated at a second time period, by a neuroimage mapping manager, wherein a region of interest is an area that shows an indication of a potential abnormality, an area that shows an indication of potential disease, or an area that is expected to change due to therapy;

identifying a set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time based on the comparison of the first set of regions of interest to the second set of regions of interest;

searching a set of electronic medical literature sources for medical literature relevant to the set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time to form relevant medical literature;

identifying portions of the relevant medical literature associated with the set of changes in the regions of interest; and

generating neuroimage mapping results, wherein the neuroimage mapping results comprises the set of changes in the regions of interest and a set of links to the portions of the relevant medical literature that are correlated to the regions of interest or the changes in the regions of interest.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the set of baseline control scans comprises a set of baseline normal scans, and further comprising:

receiving a set of brain scans for a set of healthy subjects in various demographic groups to form the baseline normal scans; and

analyzing the baseline normal scans to identify a normal appearance of areas in normal brain scans, wherein a normal brain scan is a scan that does not show indications of disease or abnormalities in the areas in the normal brain scans.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the set of baseline control scans comprises a set of baseline abnormal scans, and further comprising:

receiving a set of brain scans for a set of subjects in various demographic groups having identified abnormalities in the set of brain scans to form the baseline abnormal scans; and

analyzing the baseline abnormal scans to identify an abnormal appearance of areas in brain scans, wherein an abnormal scan is a scan that shows indications of disease or abnormalities in the areas of the brain scans.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the set of baseline control scans comprises a set of baseline treatment scans, and further comprising:

receiving a set of brain scans for a set of subjects in various demographic groups having identified conditions and undergoing identified therapies or treatments to form the baseline treatment scans; and

analyzing the baseline treatment scans to identify an appearance of areas in brain scans during a course of at least one identified therapy or treatment, wherein a treatment scan is a scan that shows effects of treatments or therapies in the areas of the brain scans.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

correlating clinical data for the patient to the set of changes in the regions of interest, wherein the results includes a set of links to portions of the clinical data for the patient corresponding to the changes in the regions of interest in the set of scans for the patient.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the set of changes in the regions of interest indicates a change in brain chemistry or brain metabolism, determining where the change in brain chemistry or brain metabolism occurs in the set of scans for the patient and identifying an amount of change in the brain chemistry or the brain metabolism, wherein the set of changes in the areas of interest comprises an identification of the location of the change in brain chemistry and brain metabolism and an indication of a degree of change in the brain chemistry and brain metabolism.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to a determination that the set of changes in the regions of interest indicates a change in brain chemistry or brain metabolism, determining whether the change in brain chemistry or brain metabolism correlates with clinical data for the patient; and

identifying correlations between the changes in the brain chemistry and brain metabolism with the clinical data in the results.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the set of links to the portions of the relevant medical literature are embedded in the first set of changes in the regions of interest.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the set of links to the portions of the relevant medical literature are stored in an electronic copy of a medical file for the patient.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the first set of scans and the second set of scans comprises at least one of a set of positron emission tomography scans of a brain of a patient and a set of magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brain of the patient.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to receiving the first set of brain scans for a patient generated at the first time, comparing the first set of brain scans to a set of baseline control scans to automatically identify the first set of regions of interest in the first set of scans, by the neuroimage mapping manager;

responsive to receiving the second set of brain scans for the patient generated at the second time, comparing the second set of brain scans to the set of baseline control scans to automatically identify the second set of regions of interest in the second set of scans, by the neuroimage mapping manager.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the neuroimage mapping results comprises the first set of regions of interest and the second set of regions of interest.

13. A computer program product for determining the efficacy of neuropsychiatric therapy, the computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, said computer program product comprising;

computer usable program code configured to automatically compare a first set of regions of interest in a first set of scans taken at a first time to a second set of regions of interest in a second set of scans generated at a second time period, by a neuroimage mapping manager, wherein a region of interest is an area that shows an indication of a potential abnormality, an area that shows an indication of potential disease, or an area that is expected to change due to therapy;

computer usable program code configured to identify a set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time based on the comparison of the first set of regions of interest to the second set of regions of interest;

computer usable program code configured to search a set of electronic medical literature sources for medical literature relevant to the set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time to form relevant medical literature;

computer usable program code configured to identify portions of the relevant medical literature associated with the set of changes in the regions of interest; and

computer usable program code configured to generate neuroimage mapping results, wherein the neuroimage mapping results comprises the set of changes in the regions of interest and a set of links to the portions of the relevant medical literature that are correlated to the regions of interest or the changes in the regions of interest.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the set of baseline control scans comprises a set of baseline normal scans, and further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to receive a set of brain scans for a set of healthy subjects in various demographic groups to form the baseline normal scans; and

computer usable program code configured to analyze the baseline normal scans to identify a normal appearance of areas in normal brain scans, wherein a normal brain scan is a scan that does not show indications of disease or abnormalities in the areas in the normal brain scans.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the set of baseline control scans comprises a set of baseline abnormal scans, and further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to receive a set of brain scans for a set of subjects in various demographic groups having identified abnormalities in the set of brain scans to form the baseline abnormal scans; and

computer usable program code configured to analyze the baseline abnormal scans to identify an abnormal appearance of areas in brain scans, wherein an abnormal scan is a scan that shows indications of disease or abnormalities in the areas of the brain scans.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the set of baseline control scans comprises a set of baseline treatment scans, and further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to receive a set of brain scans for a set of subjects in various demographic groups having identified conditions and undergoing identified therapies or treatments to form the baseline treatment scans; and

computer usable program code configured to analyze the baseline treatment scans to identify an appearance of areas in brain scans during a course of at least one identified therapy or treatment, wherein a treatment scan is a scan that shows effects of treatments or therapies in the areas of the brain scans.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to correlate clinical data for the patient to the set of changes in the regions of interest, wherein the results comprise a set of links to portions of the clinical data for the patient corresponding to the changes in the regions of interest in the set of scans for the patient.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to determine a location of the change in brain chemistry or a location of the change in the brain metabolism in the first set of scans or the second set of scans and identifying an amount of change in the brain chemistry or an amount of change in the brain metabolism in response to a determination that the set of changes in the regions of interest indicates a change in brain chemistry or brain metabolism, wherein the set of changes in the areas of interest comprises an identification of the location of the change in brain chemistry and brain metabolism and an indication of a degree of change in the brain chemistry and brain metabolism.

19. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising:

computer usable program code configured to determine whether a change in brain chemistry or a change in brain metabolism correlates with clinical data for the patient in response to a determination that the set of changes in the regions of interest indicates the change in brain chemistry or the change in brain metabolism; and

computer usable program code configured to identify correlations between the changes in the brain chemistry and brain metabolism with the clinical data in the results.

20. An apparatus for managing neuropsychiatric disease data, the apparatus comprising:

a neuroimage mapping manager for determining the efficacy of neuropsychiatric therapy, the neuroimage mapping manager comprising;

a neuroimage analyzer, wherein the neuroimage analyzer automatically compares a first set of regions of interest in a first set of scans taken at a first time to a second set of regions of interest in a second set of scans generated at a second time period and identifies a set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time based on the comparison of the first set of regions of interest to the second set of regions of interest, wherein a region of interest is an area that shows an indication of a potential abnormality, an area that shows an indication of potential disease, or an area that is expected to change due to therapy; and

a medical data and text analytics, wherein the medical data and text analytics searches a set of electronic medical literature sources for medical literature relevant to the set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time to form relevant medical literature and identifies portions of the relevant medical literature associated with the set of changes in the regions of interest; and

wherein the neuroimage mapping manager generates neuroimage mapping results, wherein the neuroimage mapping results comprises the set of changes in the regions of interest and a set of links to the portions of the relevant medical literature that are correlated to the regions of interest or the changes in the regions of interest.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 further comprising:

a comparator, wherein the comparator correlates clinical data for the patient to the set of changes in the regions of interest, wherein the neuroimage mapping results comprises a set of links to portions of the clinical data for the patient corresponding to the changes in the regions of interest in the set of scans for the patient.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 further comprising:

a set of computers, wherein the neuroimage mapping manager is located on the set of computers.

23. An apparatus comprising:

a bus system;

a communications system coupled to the bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes computer usable program code; and

a processing unit coupled to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code to automatically compare a first set of regions of interest in a first set of scans taken at a first time to a second set of regions of interest in a second set of scans generated at a second time period, wherein a region of interest is an area that shows an indication of a potential abnormality, an area that shows an indication of potential disease, or an area that is expected to change due to therapy;

identify a set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time based on the comparison of the first set of regions of interest to the second set of regions of interest;

search a set of electronic medical literature sources for medical literature relevant to the set of changes in the regions of interest occurring over time to form relevant medical literature;

identify portions of the relevant medical literature associated with the set of changes in the regions of interest; and

generate neuroimage mapping results, wherein the neuroimage mapping results comprises the set of changes in the regions of interest and a set of links to the portions of the relevant medical literature that are correlated to the regions of interest or the changes in the regions of interest.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the processor unit further executes the computer usable program code to correlate clinical data for the patient to the set of changes in the regions of interest, wherein the results includes a set of links to portions of the clinical data for the patient corresponding to the changes in the regions of interest in the set of scans for the patient.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein the first set of scans and the second set of scans comprises at least one of a set of positron emission tomography scans of a brain of a patient and a set of magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brain of the patient.