MULTIPLE MODALITY MAMMOGRAPHY IMAGE GALLERY AND CLIPPING SYSTEM

• US 20110125526A1
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Penrad Technologies Incorporated (Intelerad Medical Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Penrad Technologies Incorporated (Intelerad Medical Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Gustafson, Greg
• Granted Patent: US 9,171,130 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20104 Interactive definition of region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30068 Mammography; Breast
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/41 based on statistical description of texture
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

A system and method for analyzing and retrieving images of breast tissue abnormalities obtained from multiple sources. Providing a tool for a radiologist that includes a convenient region-of-interest association of mammogram, or other anatomical images, of an individual patient. One embodiment provides an efficient collection of all of the mammogram abnormalities for a patient. In yet another embodiment, the region-of-interest abnormalities in a single location in a patient'"'"'s tissue are correlated across a variety of imaging modalities including X-rays, mammogram, CT, ultrasound, MRI, or other imaging technologies.

Claims

1. A method for managing patient mammography data comprising:

obtaining a first breast tissue image, wherein the image includes a region of interest containing an abnormality categorized according to an established lexicon;

storing a selected region of the first breast tissue image as a second image;

mapping the second image to a storage location of the first breast tissue image; and

associating the selected region with the categorized abnormality.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a report with the categorized abnormality.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a copy of a patient correspondence letter with the categorized abnormality.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a biopsy result related to the abnormality with the categorized abnormality.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first breast tissue image is at least one image selected from one of the group consisting of:

an X-ray image, a CT image, a MRI image, a pathological image and an ultrasound image.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the selected region.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving the first breast tissue image based on a link between the first breast tissue image and the second image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected region of the first breast tissue image includes the region of interest.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the second image with the categorization of the region of interest.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the second image based on a request for a set of data including the categorization of the region of interest.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining at least one additional image including information related to a patient associated with the first breast tissue image;

storing a selected portion of the at least one additional image as a third image; and

mapping the third image to a storage location of the first breast tissue image.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one additional image comprises text.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one additional image is selected from the group consisting of an X-ray image, a CT image, a MRI image, an ultrasound image, a pathology image, a pathology report, a reporting letter, and a portion of a medical file.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying thumbnail images of at least one of the first mammographic image, the second image, the at least one additional image and the third image.

15. A configurable mammography diagnostic system, comprising:

a plurality of electronic displays, at least one of the plurality of electronic displays configured to display a breast tissue image having at least one region of interest;

a graphical user interface configured to be displayed on at least one of the plurality of electronic displays and comprising an anatomical diagram on which the at least one region of interest can be marked;

a clipping tool with which a portion of the breast tissue image including the at least one region of interest and displayed on at least one of the plurality of electronic displays can be selected as a second image, the second image displayable on at least one of the plurality of electronic displays as a subset of the breast tissue image; and

a processing engine configured to link the second image to the breast tissue image, store the second image in an image database, and to associate the second image with a corresponding region of interest marked on the anatomical diagram.

16. The configurable mammography diagnostic system of claim 15, wherein the system is connected to the image database by a network.

17. The configurable mammography diagnostic system of claim 15, wherein the breast tissue image is of a type selected from the group consisting of an X-ray image, a MRI image, an ultrasound image, a CT image, and a pathology image.

18. The configurable mammography diagnostic system of claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to present the second image based on a selection of the corresponding region of interest marked on the anatomical diagram.

19. The configurable mammography diagnostic system of claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface is configured to present the second image based on a request for a set of data including the categorization of the region of interest.

20. A method of correlating multiple image modalities comprising:

obtaining a first mammographic image including a region of interest that includes an abnormality categorized according to an established lexicon;

obtaining a second mammographic image, wherein the second mammographic image is of a different modality than the first mammographic image;

storing a selected region of the first mammographic image as a second image;

storing a selected region of the second mammographic image as a third image;

associating the second image with an anatomical diagram;

associating the third image with the anatomical diagram;

associating the second image with the categorization of the abnormality;

associating the third image with the categorization of the abnormality; and

presenting the second image and the third image in a gallery based on a selection of the region of interest.

21. A method comprising:

obtaining a categorization of each of at least one abnormality in a plurality of tissue images, wherein each of the plurality of tissue images are of at least one human breast;

storing the categorizations of the abnormalities and an associated reference to the tissue images in an electronic database;

associating a result of a diagnosis of a tissue sample of the abnormality obtained from each of the human breasts depicted in the tissue images with a corresponding region of interest in the database;

comparing an analysis of a computer aided diagnostic tool on the plurality of tissue images with the result of the diagnosis of the tissue sample of the abnormality.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising adjusting the computer aided diagnostic tool to improve a correlation of results between the analysis of the computer aided diagnostic tool and the result of the diagnosis of the tissue sample of the abnormality.