IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD TO DETERMINE SUSPECT REGIONS IN A TISSUE MATRIX, AND USE THEREOF FOR 3D NAVIGATION THROUGH THE TISSUE MATRIX

• US 20120045111A1
• Filed: 08/19/2011
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Iordache, Razvan, Bernard, Sylvain, PALMA, Giovanni
• Granted Patent: US 8,824,761 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/132
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/006 Inverse problem, transformation from projection-space into object-space, e.g. transform methods, back-projection, algebraic methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/04 involving 3D image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10112 Digital tomosynthesis [DTS]
• 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 2211/436 Limited angle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

A method to generate a final image with a medical imaging system, wherein the final image highlights suspect regions in a tissue matrix and wherein the final image is generated from a first image and from previously acquired images of the tissue matrix is provided. The method comprises: creating a 3D map of suspicion from the previously acquired medical images; generating a 2D map of suspicion by projecting all or part of the 3D map of suspicion onto a plane from a point reproducing the conditions of acquisition of the first image; and generating a final 2D image of the tissue matrix from the first image and/or from the 2D map of suspicion, wherein the final 2D image highlights suspect regions in the tissue matrix.

Claims

1. A method to generate a final image with a medical imaging system, wherein the final image highlights suspect regions in a tissue matrix and wherein the final image is generated from a first image and from previously acquired images of the tissue matrix, the method comprising:

creating a 3D map of suspicion with a detection computer from the previously acquired medical images, wherein the 3D map of suspicion comprises a 3D matrix of voxels whose values indicate a degree of suspicion that shows whether the corresponding regions of the tissue matrix are suspect;

generating a 2D map of suspicion with an implementing computer by projecting all or part of the 3D map of suspicion onto a plane from a point reproducing the conditions of acquisition of the first image, wherein the 2D map of suspicion comprises a 2D matrix of pixels whose values indicate a degree of suspicion that is determined from the corresponding degree of suspicion from the 3D map of suspicion; and

generating a final 2D image of the tissue matrix with the implementing computer from the first image and/or from the 2D map of suspicion, wherein the final 2D image highlights suspect regions in the tissue matrix.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the imaging system is a breast tomosynthesis system.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the value of a pixel in the 2D map of suspicion is obtained by an aggregation operation on the values of the voxels in the 3D map of suspicion located on a straight line joining the point reproducing the conditions of acquisition of the first image and the pixel in the 2D map, such that:

μ

(Pix_M2D)=⊥

<sub>iε

L</sub>μ

(Vox_M3Dⁱ),

wherein M2D is the 2D suspicion map, Pix_M2D is a pixel in the 2D suspicion map, μ

(Pix_M2D) is the value of a pixel in the 2D suspicion map, M3D is the 3D suspicion map, Vox_M3Dⁱ are voxels in the 3D suspicion map, and μ

(Vox_M3Dⁱ) are the values of voxels in the 3D suspicion map.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating a volume with the implementing computer from a previously obtained 3D image and from the 3D map of suspicion,

wherein the 3D image comprises a matrix of voxels whose values are obtained from intensities of the previously acquired images, and

wherein the volume comprises a matrix of voxels whose values are determined by multiplying the values of the corresponding voxels in the 3D map of suspicion and those in the 3D image.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising generating an image of suspect radiological signs with the implementing computer by projecting the volume onto a plane from the point reproducing the acquisition conditions of the first image,

wherein the image of suspect radiological signs comprises a matrix of pixels, and

wherein the value of one pixel of the image of suspect radiological signs is obtained by applying an aggregation operator to the values of voxels of the volume located on a straight line joining the point reproducing the acquisition conditions of the first image and the pixel, such that:

π

(Pix_P1)=⊥

<sub>iε

L</sub>π

(Vox_V1ⁱ),

wherein P1 is the image of suspect radiological signs, Pix_P1 is a pixel in the image of suspect radiological signs, π

(Pix_P1) is the value of one pixel of suspect radiological signs, V1 is the volume, Vox_V1ⁱ are voxels of the volume and π

(Vox_V1ⁱ) are values of the voxels of the volume.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the implementing computer generates the final 2D image by performing a weighted addition of all or part of the values of the pixels in the first image, in the image of suspect radiological signs and in the 2D map of suspicion.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein once the 3D map of suspicion has been created, the implementing computer only works on one part of the maps and images, wherein the one part is a region of interest determined from the 3D map of suspicion as possibly being a suspect region.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the region of interest is produced automatically from the 3D map of suspicion.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

displaying an image of the tissue matrix on a display device, wherein the image of the tissue matrix comprises the first image or a final 2D image;

labelling the region of interest in the image of the tissue matrix; and

displaying several images on the display device or on another display device, the several images corresponding to slices of the tissue matrix at the region of interest and parallel to the image of the tissue matrix, wherein the slices of the tissue matrix are classified in order of suspicion according to the 3D map of suspicion.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

displaying an image of the tissue matrix on a display device;

overlaying a watermark indicating the degree of suspicion of a region of the tissue matrix on the image of the tissue matrix, wherein the watermark is constructed from the 2D map of suspicion and reveals isocontours of the 2D map of suspicion.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the isocontours are indicated in the watermark by lines or coloured areas.

12. A computing system to generate a final image which highlights suspect regions in a tissue matrix, the computing system comprising:

a module configured to generate a 2D map of suspicion from a previously generated 3D map of suspicion obtained from medical images of the tissue matrix;

a module configured to generate a volume from a 3D image of a tissue matrix and from the 3D map of suspicion;

a module configured to generate an image of suspect radiological signs from a simulated projection of the volume onto a plane starting from a point;

a module configured to generate a final 2D image from a first image, a previously acquired image, the 2D map of suspicion, and the image of suspect radiological signs by weighted addition thereof;

a memory unit configured to store the 2D map of suspicion, the volume, the image of suspect radiological signs and the final 2D image; and

a display unit configured to display at least one image.