METHOD FOR LOADING MEDICAL IMAGE DATA AND DEVICE FOR PERFORMING THE METHOD

• US 20130266242A1
• Filed: 02/22/2013
• Published: 10/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthineers AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: DORN, Karlheinz, KNIG, Helmut, UKIS, Vladyslav
• Granted Patent: US 9,020,304 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/60 Memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10081 Computed x-ray tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10088 Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS

Abstract

In order to enable improved or even optimized loading of medical image data, a data type representing the image data is determined in at least one embodiment from the image data in a first step and a data-type-specific default loading strategy is selected according to the data type. The default loading strategy may be refined, in at least one example embodiment, to produce a loading strategy based on additional context data. The context data is obtained for example during an initial assessment of the image data. For this purpose, provision is made in particular for a shared index to be generated in which the context data is stored together with further information associated with the image data of a plurality of objects that are to be examined.

Claims

1. A method for loading medical image data to make the image data available to an image processing program, the image data having been generated from raw data of a medical imaging system during the scanning of an object and the image data assigned to a respective object, in each case, including metadata and pixel data, the method comprising:

assigning the image data to a data type out of a plurality of possible data types;

subsequently selecting a loading strategy assigned to the identified data type, out of a plurality of data-type-specific loading strategies; and

utilizing the selected loading strategy for loading the image data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of possible data types include:

a) volume image data based on individual slice images as a first data type,

b) volume image data based on multiframe image data as a second data type,

c) image data conforming to a whole slide imaging standard within a DICOM standard as a third data type, and

d) projection image data as a fourth data type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data type is assigned on the basis of the metadata.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the image data is additionally assigned context data and the loading strategy is selected on the basis of the context data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a shared index is generated for the image data of a plurality of medical objects, in which index associated context data is assigned to the image data of a respective object, the index being accessed in order to determine the context data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the loading strategy is determined on the basis of the information stored in the index.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the data type is assigned and an entry made in the index as soon as the image data is received from an imaging medical device.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein information from a preceding evaluation of the image data is stored in the context data.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the loading strategy is determined taking into account information relating to imaging regions of interest which were identified in a preceding assessment.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein a plurality of imaging regions are identified these are loaded in succession according to a weighting.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the loading strategy is determined taking into account the type of object that is to be examined.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the loading strategy is determined taking into account examination objectives.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein workflows predefined for image processing on the image processing program are stored and the modified loading strategy is determined by the sequence of the workflows.

14. A device comprising a computer unit including a load module installed thereon for performing the method of claim 1.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the load module comprises

a data type assignment module for assigning the data type to the image data,

an index generator for generating an index,

an analysis module for automatically extracting context data from a preceding evaluation of the image data, and

a workflow module for controlling the loading of the image data and determining, on the basis of the information stored in the index, the loading strategy for loading the image data from an image data memory.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein the one data type is assigned on the basis of the metadata.

17. The method of claim 6, wherein the data type is assigned and an entry made in the index as soon as the image data is received from an imaging medical device.

18. A device comprising a computer unit including a load module installed thereon for performing the method of claim 4.

19. A computer readable medium including program segments for, when executed on a computer device, causing the computer device to implement the method of claim 1.

20. A computer readable medium including program segments for, when executed on a computer device, causing the computer device to implement the method of claim 4.