SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC TRIGGER-ROI DETECTION AND MONITORING DURING BOLUS TRACKING

• US 20100249582A1
• Filed: 03/23/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Krishnan, Arun, Zhou, Xiang Sean, Feuerlein, Ute
• Granted Patent: US 9,414,798 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/431
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7285 for synchronising or triggering a physiological measurement or image acquisition with a physiological event or waveform, e.g. an ECG signal A61B6/5205, A61B6/541, A61B8/5207, A61B8/543 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/469 for selecting a region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/481 involving the use of contrast agents
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/488 involving pre-scan acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/504 for diagnosis of blood vessels, e.g. by angiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/541 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal

Abstract

A method for bolus tracking includes acquiring one or more baseline images. One or more trigger regions are automatically established within the baseline images. A bolus is administered. The automatically established trigger regions are monitored for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions. Bolus arrival at a volume of interest is forecasted based on the bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions. A diagnostic scan of the volume of interest is acquired at the forecasted time.

Claims

1. A method for bolus tracking, comprising:

acquiring one or more baseline images;

automatically establishing one or more trigger regions within each of the one or more baseline images;

administering a bolus;

monitoring the automatically established trigger regions for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions;

forecasting bolus arrival at a volume of interest based on the bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions; and

acquiring a diagnostic scan of the volume of interest at the forecasted time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein acquisition of the baseline images comprises:

acquiring a scout image;

automatically detecting a monitoring line within the scout image; and

acquiring the one or more baseline images at an image slice determined by the location of the automatically detected monitoring line within the scout image.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein automatic establishment of the one or more trigger regions within the one or more baseline images includes automatically determining a shape, size, and location of the one or more trigger regions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more trigger regions are automatically established based on anatomical context.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more trigger regions are each located inside blood vessels and the one or more trigger regions are each labeled to be indicative of a corresponding anatomical location.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the blood vessels include the ascending aorta, aortic arch, descending aorta, abdominal aorta, internal carotid artery, or external carotid artery.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the automatically established one or more trigger regions for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions includes performing motion compensation to correct for patient motion, respiratory motion, or cardiac motion within the one or more baseline images.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein motion compensation includes repositioning one or more trigger regions in the event of movement.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more baseline images are each low-dose CT images, the bolus comprises a radio-opaque contrast medium, and the diagnostic scan is a high-resolution CT scan.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein an injection site for administering the bolus is automatically selected,

11. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more anatomical landmarks are automatically identified within the baseline image and monitoring the automatically established trigger regions for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions includes tracking the trigger regions and the anatomical landmarks and registering the trigger regions to an anatomical coordinate system referencing the tracked anatomical landmarks, wherein two of the one or more baseline images are registered to the anatomical coordinate system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein one or more of the one or more trigger regions change in shape, location, or size, in time, as a result of the tracking of the trigger regions relative to the anatomical coordinate system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more trigger regions comprise a plurality of trigger regions and image intensity statistics are recorded at each of the trigger regions over time, wherein the trigger regions and the image intensity statistics are used jointly to forecast the bolus arrival at the volume of interest.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the image intensity statistics include a maximal, median, average intensity, or k-th bolus arrival where arrival is defined as an increase of image intensity above a set threshold and k is a predetermined or selected positive integer.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more trigger regions is automatically assigned a confidence score.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the confidence scores of the one or more trigger regions are used in combination with temporal intensity statistics or bolus arrivals at the trigger regions in forecasting bolus arrival at the volume of interest.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more anomaly are automatically detected and monitored and the monitored anomaly are used to adjust the shape, location, or size of the one or more of the trigger regions to reduce the influence of the anomaly on the acquired diagnostic scan.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more anomaly includes diseases, implants, imaging artifacts, or out-of-plane motion.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein when the one or more anomaly is an extreme anomaly causing failures or low-confidence for automatic trigger region placement or motion-tracking, the failure or low confidence are reported to a technician who is then instructed to perform bolus tracking manually.

20. A method for bolus tracking, comprising:

acquiring a scout image;

automatically detecting a monitoring line within the scout image;

acquiring a baseline image at a location determined by the location of the automatically detected monitoring line within the scout image;

acquiring a baseline image;

automatically establishing a plurality of trigger regions within the baseline image;

administering a bolus;

monitoring the automatically established trigger regions for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions;

forecasting bolus arrival at a volume of interest based on the bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions; and

acquiring a diagnostic scan of the volume of interest at the forecasted time.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein each of the one or more trigger regions is automatically assigned a confidence score and the confidence scores are used in combination with bolus arrival at the trigger regions in forecasting bolus arrival at the volume of interest.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein monitoring the automatically established trigger regions for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions includes performing motion compensation to correct for patient motion within the baseline image, the motion compensation including repositioning one or more of the one or more trigger regions in the event of movement.

23. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory, tangible, program storage medium, readable by the computer system, embodying a program of instructions executable by the processor to perform method steps for bolus tracking, the method comprising;

acquiring a scout image;

automatically detecting a monitoring line within the scout image;

acquiring a baseline image at a location determined by the location of the automatically detected monitoring line within the scout image;

acquiring a baseline image;

automatically establishing one or more trigger regions within the baseline image;

administering a bolus;

monitoring the automatically established trigger regions for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions;

forecasting bolus arrival at a volume of interest based on the bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions; and

acquiring a diagnostic scan of the volume of interest at the forecasted time.

24. The computer system of claim 23, wherein monitoring the automatically established trigger regions for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions includes performing motion compensation to correct for patient motion within the baseline image.

25. The computer system of claim 23, wherein one or more anatomical landmarks are automatically identified within the baseline image and monitoring the automatically established trigger regions for bolus arrival at the one or more trigger regions includes tracking the trigger regions and the anatomical landmarks and registering the trigger regions to an anatomical coordinate system referencing the tracked anatomical landmarks.

26. The computer system of claim 23, wherein each of the one or more trigger regions is automatically assigned a confidence score.