Method and System of Computer-Aided Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Medical Images
First Claim
1. A method of analyzing a plurality of medical image data of a region in an anatomy and detecting abnormalities in the region, at least a set of the plurality of medical image data containing temporal information responsive to administering of a contrast enhancement agent, the method comprising the steps of:
- obtaining the plurality of medical image data;
identifying from the plurality of medical image data a set of data points representing a possible lesion in said region;
extracting from the plurality of medical image data features associated with said set of data points, said features including at least two sets of a set of morphological features, a set of kinetics characteristics of the temporal information, and a set of biochemical characteristics;
computing an initial diagnostic assessment of said possible lesion from said at least two sets of features; and
providing said initial assessment to a user for evaluation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method of computer aided analysis of medical images and detection of malignant lesions is described. Medical images obtained from multiple modalities are analyzed. Morphological features as well as temporal, i.e., kinetics features, are combined to compute a consolidated assessment of a possible lesion detected in the medical images. The system includes at least one kinetics module, which is capable of extracting kinetics features from a time sequence of MRI images or MRS data taken after administering a contrast enhancement agent to a patient. The consolidated assessment is presented to a user for confirmation or modification.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method of analyzing a plurality of medical image data of a region in an anatomy and detecting abnormalities in the region, at least a set of the plurality of medical image data containing temporal information responsive to administering of a contrast enhancement agent, the method comprising the steps of:
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obtaining the plurality of medical image data; identifying from the plurality of medical image data a set of data points representing a possible lesion in said region; extracting from the plurality of medical image data features associated with said set of data points, said features including at least two sets of a set of morphological features, a set of kinetics characteristics of the temporal information, and a set of biochemical characteristics; computing an initial diagnostic assessment of said possible lesion from said at least two sets of features; and providing said initial assessment to a user for evaluation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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7. The method of 1, wherein the plurality of medical image data includes medical image data acquired from at least two modalities, said computation and re-computation further comprising the steps of:
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for each modality of said at least two modalities, computing a modality decision from features extracted from medical image data of said each modality, correlating said modality decisions in said computation and re-computation.
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14. A system for analyzing a plurality of medical image data of a region in an anatomy, at least a set of the plurality of medical image data containing temporal information responsive to administering of a contrast enhancement agent, the system comprising:
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an image data module for retrieving the plurality of medical image data; a morphology module for identifying a possible lesion in said medical image data and extracting and classifying morphological features associated with said possible lesion; a kinetic module, said kinetics module extracting from the plurality of medical image data kinetics characteristics of the temporal information associated with said possible lesion; a spectroscopic analysis module, said spectroscopic analysis module extracting from the plurality of medical image data biochemical characteristics relating to one or more marker chemicals; a consolidation decision engine, said consolidation decision engine receiving said extracted and classified morphological features from said morphology module, said extracted kinetics characteristics of said temporal information from said kinetics module, and said biochemical characteristics from the spectroscopic analysis module, and computing an initial diagnostic assessment of said possible lesion from said morphological features, said kinetics characteristics and said biochemical characteristics in the computation of said assessment; and a graphical user interface for displaying at least a portion of said plurality of medical image data along with said initial diagnostic assessment for user evaluation and modification. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A system for analyzing medical image data of a region in an anatomy, the medical image data being acquired from a plurality of modalities, the system comprising:
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an image data module for receiving the medical image data; a plurality of image processing modules, each for processing image data acquired from one of said plurality of modalities, said each module identifying a possible lesion in said medical image data and extracting and classifying a set of modality characteristics associated with said possible lesion; a plurality of modality decision engines, each of said modality decision engines computing a modality assessment of said possible lesion for a modality of said plurality of modalities from said set of modality characteristics associated with the modality; a consolidation decision engine, said consolidation decision engine combining said modality assessments and computing an initial diagnostic assessment of said possible lesion from said modality assessments; and a graphical user interface for displaying at least a portion of said medical image data along with said initial diagnostic assessment for user evaluation and modification. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification