IMAGE DIAGNOSIS DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

• US 20140177934A1
• Filed: 02/28/2014
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: NOSHI, Yasuhiro, Nakanishi, Satoru
• Granted Patent: US 9,240,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/131
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/03 Computed tomography [CT] echo-tomography A61B8/14
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/037 Emission tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/0407 Supports, e.g. tables or beds, for the body or parts of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/0492 using markers or indicia for aiding patient positioning
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/4417 related to combined acquisition of different diagnostic modalities
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/5247 combining images from an ionising-radiation diagnostic technique and a non-ionising radiation diagnostic technique, e.g. X-ray and ultrasound
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/5276 involving measuring table sag
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

An image diagnosis device comprising: a positioning image collection unit configured to collect a positioning image for an object; a weight distribution estimation unit configured to estimate a weight distribution of the object from the collected positioning image; a top board sagging amount estimation unit configured to estimate an amount of sagging of a top board on which the object is placed, from the estimated weight distribution; and an alignment adjustment unit configured to perform alignment for each captured image of the object, based on the estimated amount of sagging of the top board.

Claims

1. An image diagnosis device comprising:

a positioning image collection unit configured to collect a positioning image for an object;

a weight distribution estimation unit configured to estimate a weight distribution of the object from the collected positioning image;

a top board sagging amount estimation unit configured to estimate an amount of sagging of a top board on which the object is placed, from the estimated weight distribution; and

an alignment adjustment unit configured to perform alignment for each captured image of the object, based on the estimated amount of sagging of the top board.

2. The image diagnosis device according to claim 1,

wherein the weight distribution estimation unit is further configured to estimate a weight distribution in a case where weight of the object is distributed over a plurality of points on the top board, and

wherein the top board sagging amount estimation unit is further configured to estimate the amount of sagging of the top board based on the estimated weight distribution over the plurality of points and a distance from a fulcrum of the top board to a weight position in the weight distribution.

3. The image diagnosis device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a center-of-gravity estimation unit configured to estimate a position of a center of gravity of the object from the estimated weight distribution,

wherein the top board sagging amount estimation unit is further configured to estimate the amount of sagging of the top board based on the estimated position of the center of gravity and weight applied at the position of the center of gravity.

4. The image diagnosis device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a table used to estimate the amount of sagging of the top board based on a distance from the fulcrum of the top board to a weight position and weight applied at the weight position,

wherein the top board sagging amount estimation unit is further configured to convert the position of the center of gravity estimated by the center-of-gravity estimation unit to a distance from the fulcrum of the top board to a weight position, and estimate the amount of sagging of the top board using the table, based on the distance from the fulcrum of the top board to the weight position obtained by the conversion and weight applied at the position of the center of gravity.

5. The image diagnosis device according to claim 1, wherein the weight distribution estimation unit is further configured to calculate, for the collected positioning image, a luminance value integral by integrating luminance values indicating luminance at each body axis position, and estimate the weight distribution based on the luminance value integral.

6. The image diagnosis device according to claim 1, wherein the weight distribution estimation unit is further configured to calculate a water equivalent thickness profile obtained by estimating a water equivalent thickness of each body axis position of the object, based on the collected positioning image, and estimate the weight distribution based on the water equivalent thickness profile.

7. The image diagnosis device according to claim 1, wherein the alignment adjustment unit is further configured to estimate an inclination of the top board at a corresponding capturing position from the estimated amount of sagging of the top board, and perform alignment with respect to the inclination of the top board for each captured image of the object.

8. The image diagnosis device according to claim 1, wherein the alignment adjustment unit is further configured to perform alignment between an X-ray CT image captured by a helical scanning method and a PET image captured by a step-and-shoot method.

9. The image diagnosis device according to claim 1, wherein the alignment adjustment unit is further configured to perform alignment of the top board for each piece of volume data of X-ray CT images obtained by successively capturing the object by the step-and-shoot method.

10. The image diagnosis device according to claim 1, wherein the weight distribution estimation unit is further configured to estimate a body shape of the object based on the collected positioning image, and estimate the weight distribution of the object based on the estimated body shape.

11. A control method of an image diagnosis device, the method comprising:

collecting a positioning image for an object;

estimating a weight distribution of the object from the collected positioning image;

estimating an amount of sagging of a top board on which the object is placed, from the estimated weight distribution; and

performing alignment for each captured image of the object, based on the estimated amount of sagging of the top board.