METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING BONE LENGTHS

• US 20110060247A1
• Filed: 09/10/2009
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Frank, Mathew, Payne, Randall
• Application Number:
  US12/557,280
• Publication Number:
  US 20110060247A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/587
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/107 Measuring physical dimensions, e.g. size of the entire body or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1075 for measuring dimensions by non-invasive methods, e.g. for determining thickness of tissue layer A61B8/0858 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4504 Bones A61B5/4547 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4509 Bone density determination
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/4042 K-edge filters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/482 involving multiple energy imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/505 for diagnosis of bone

Abstract

Methods and apparatus measuring bone lengths are provided. The methods include acquiring bone image information from a dual-energy x-ray scan of a subject and generating a dual-energy image using the acquired bone information. The methods further include determining a length of at least one bone of the subject using the dual-energy image.

Claims

1. A method for measuring bone length, the method comprising:

acquiring bone image information from a dual-energy x-ray scan of a subject;

generating a dual-energy image using the acquired bone information; and

determining a length of at least one bone of the subject using the dual-energy image.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising performing a full body dual-energy scan to acquire the bone information.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising performing a rectangular dual-energy scan of a plurality of joint regions to acquire the bone information.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising performing a rectilinear dual-energy scan to acquire the bone information.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising performing a single dual-energy scan to acquire the bone information.

6. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising performing a dual-energy scan in a low dose mode to acquire the bone information.

7. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising performing a dual-energy scan in less than four minutes to acquire the bone information.

8. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising performing a dual-energy scan having less than three micro-Grays of absorbed radiation dose to acquire the bone information.

9. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising defining a bone length based on identified landmarks at endpoints of the bone.

10. A method in accordance with claim 9 wherein the identified landmark is operator defined.

11. A method in accordance with claim 9 wherein the identified landmark is automatically defined.

12. A method in accordance with claim 9 wherein the landmarks identify endplates of the bone.

13. A method in accordance with claim 12 further comprising adjusting a position of the identified landmark by convolving a kernel around the identified landmark.

14. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein determining the length of the bone comprises measuring a distance between identified endpoints of the bone using a number of pixels in the dual-energy image between the endpoints.

15. A method in accordance with claim 14 wherein determining the length of the bone comprises using a determined location of a scanner that acquired the dual-energy image to determine a length of an unscanned portion of the bone.

16. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising calculating at least one bone length ratio based on a determined length of a plurality of bones.

17. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising displaying bone length information on a display based on the determined length of the bone.

18. A method for determining bone length, the method comprising:

acquiring image information with a bone densitometer using a dual-energy full body scan, the image information comprising bone content information and soft tissue information;

identifying endpoints of at least one bone using images formed from the image information; and

calculating a distance between the endpoints to determine a length of the at least one bone.

19. A method in accordance with claim 18 further comprising performing a single rectilinear low dose scan to acquire the image information.

20. A diagnostic imaging system comprising:

a dual-energy x-ray bone densitometer configured to acquire bone information from a dual-energy imaging scan of a subject; and

a bone length measurement module configured to determine a length of at least one bone of the subject using the bone information from the dual-energy imaging scan.