METHOD AND SYSTEM OF AUTOMATED DETECTION OF LESIONS IN MEDICAL IMAGES
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of identifying suspected lesions in an ultrasound medical image, comprising the steps of:
- computing an estimated representative fat intensity value of subcutaneous fat pixels in the medical image,calculating normalized grey pixel values from pixel values of the medical image utilizing a mapping relationship between a normalized fat intensity value and the representative fat intensity value to obtain a normalized image,identifying pixels in the normalized image forming distinct areas, each of the distinct areas having consistent internal characteristics,extracting descriptive features from each of the distinct areas,analyzing the extracted descriptive features of the each distinct area and assigning to the each distinct area a likelihood value of the each distinct area being a lesion, andidentifying all distinct areas having likelihood values satisfying a pre-determined criteria as candidate lesions.
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Abstract
The invention provides a system and method for processing medical images. Input medical images are normalized first, utilizing pixel intensities of control point tissues, including subcutaneous fat. Clustered density map and malignance probability map are generated from a normalized image and further analyzed to identify regions of common internal characteristics, or blobs, that may represent lesions. These blobs are analyzed and classified to differentiate possible true lesions from other types of non-malignant masses often seen in medical images.
100 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method of identifying suspected lesions in an ultrasound medical image, comprising the steps of:
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computing an estimated representative fat intensity value of subcutaneous fat pixels in the medical image, calculating normalized grey pixel values from pixel values of the medical image utilizing a mapping relationship between a normalized fat intensity value and the representative fat intensity value to obtain a normalized image, identifying pixels in the normalized image forming distinct areas, each of the distinct areas having consistent internal characteristics, extracting descriptive features from each of the distinct areas, analyzing the extracted descriptive features of the each distinct area and assigning to the each distinct area a likelihood value of the each distinct area being a lesion, and identifying all distinct areas having likelihood values satisfying a pre-determined criteria as candidate lesions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for automatically identifying regions in a medical image that likely correspond to lesions, the system comprising:
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an intensity unit, the intensity unit being configured to compute estimated intensities of control point tissues in the medical image from pixel values in the medical image and a normalization module, the normalization unit being configured to generate a mapping relationship between an input pixel and a normalized pixel and convert a grey pixel value to a normalized pixel value to obtain a normalized image according to the mapping relationship; a map generation module, the map generation module assigning a parameter value to each pixel in an input image to generate a parameter map; a blob detection module, the blob detection module being configured to detect and demarcate blobs in the parameter map; a feature extraction unit, the feature extraction unit being configured to detect and compute descriptive features of the detected blobs; and a blob analysis module, the blob analysis module computing from descriptive features of a blob an estimated likelihood value that the blob is malignant and assigning the likelihood value to the blob. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of estimating grey scale intensity of a tissue in a digitized medical image, the method comprising the steps of:
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applying a clustering operation to intensity values of pixels of the medical image to group the intensity values into distinct intensity clusters, identifying one of the distinct intensity clusters as an intensity cluster corresponding to the tissue according to relative strength of the tissue in relation to other tissues imaged in the digitized medical image, estimating a representative grey scale intensity value of the intensity cluster from grey scale intensities of pixels of the intensity cluster; and assigning the representative grey scale intensity to the tissue. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method of processing an ultrasound breast image, the method comprising the steps of:
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constructing a layered model of breast, each pair of neighboring layers of the model defining a boundary surface between the each pair of neighboring layers, calibrating the model on a plurality of sample ultrasound breast images, each of the plurality of sample ultrasound breast images being manually segmented to identify the boundary surfaces in the sample ultrasound breast images, the calibrated model comprising parameterized surface models, each parameterized surface model comprising a set of boundary surface look-up tables (LUTs) corresponding to a discrete value of a size parameter, receiving an estimated value of the size parameter of the ultrasound breast image, computing a new surface model corresponding to the estimated value of the size parameter from the parameterized surface models, the new surface model comprising a set of computed boundary surface LUTs corresponding to the estimated value of the size parameter, and computing estimated locations of boundary surfaces from the set of computed boundary surface LUTs of the new surface model to identify pixels of a primary layer in the ultrasound breast image. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method of identifying lesions in an ultrasound breast image, comprising the steps of:
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computing estimated locations of surfaces separating primary layer tissues, said primary layer tissues including tissues in a mammary zone; identifying pixels in the mammary zone; constructing a pixel characteristic vector (PCV) for each pixel in the mammary zone, said PCV including at least characteristics of a neighborhood of said each pixel, for each of the pixels in the mammary zone, computing a malignancy probability value from the PCV of the each pixel, assigning to each of the pixels the malignancy probability value and identifying a pixel as a possible lesion pixel if its assigned malignancy probability value is above a threshold value, and reporting contiguous regions of all possible lesion pixels as potential lesions. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30)
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Specification