METHOD FOR ENHANCED DISPLAY OF IMAGE SLICES FROM 3-D VOLUME IMAGE

• US 20150279059A1
• Filed: 03/26/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CareStream Health Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CareStream Health Incorporated
• Inventors: Couwenhoven, Mary E., Barski, Lori L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,947,129 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/008 Specific post-processing after tomographic reconstruction, e.g. voxelisation, metal artifact correction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/205 Image-based rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/41 Medical
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/00 Image enhancement or restoration

Abstract

A method for rendering volume radiographic image content of a subject forms a volume image. The method extracts a first image slice from the volume image, then modifies the extracted first image slice by defining two or more spatial frequency bands from the image slice data and applying one or more viewer adjustments to the image slice data, wherein the one or more viewer adjustments condition the image data to enhance image content in at least one of the defined spatial frequency bands. A set of display rendering parameters is generated according to the two or more frequency bands and according to viewer adjustments made for the first image slice. A second image slice is extracted from the volume image. The generated set of display rendering parameters is applied to the second image slice to render an adjusted image slice and the adjusted image slice is displayed.

Claims

1. A method for rendering volume radiographic image content of a subject, the method executed at least in part on a computer and comprising:

forming a volume image by processing a plurality of 2-D projection images of the subject;

extracting a first image slice from the volume image;

modifying the extracted first image slice from the volume image by;

(i) defining two or more spatial frequency bands from first image slice data; and

(ii) applying one or more viewer adjustments to the first image slice data, wherein the one or more viewer adjustments condition the image data to enhance image content in at least one of the defined two or more spatial frequency bands;

generating a set of one or more display rendering parameters according to the two or more frequency bands and according to viewer adjustments made to the first image slice;

extracting a second image slice from the volume image;

applying the generated set of display rendering parameters to the second image slice obtained from the volume image to render an adjusted image slice; and

displaying, storing, or transmitting the adjusted image slice.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein displaying the first image slice comprises using default viewer adjustment parameters.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein modifying the displayed first image slice further comprises segmenting bone and soft tissue content in the first image slice data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more viewer adjustments change the tone scale, change image sharpness, or change image detail contrast.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the two or more spatial frequency bands are non-overlapping.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying the extracted first and second image slices from the volume image.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

extracting and displaying a third image slice from the volume image;

modifying the displayed third image slice from the volume image by applying one or more additional viewer adjustments to the third image slice data, wherein the one or more additional viewer adjustments condition the image data to enhance image detail contrast in at least one of the defined two or more spatial frequency bands; and

recalculating at least one of the set of one or more display rendering parameters according to the two or more frequency bands and according to the one or more additional viewer adjustments made for the third image slice.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more viewer adjustments are obtained from a stored set of viewer adjustments.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more viewer adjustments are obtained from a viewer during display of the first image slice.

10. A method for rendering volume radiographic image content of a subject, the method executed at least in part on a computer and comprising:

acquiring a plurality of 2-D projection images by scanning the subject over a range of different exposure angles;

forming a first reconstructed image volume that enhances bone feature contrast, extracting a first 2-D image slice from the first reconstructed image volume, performing a frequency decomposition on the first 2-D image slice, and generating a first set of one or more display rendering parameters for rendering bone content of the first 2-D image slice according to one or more viewer adjustments;

forming a second reconstructed image volume that enhances soft tissue feature contrast, extracting a second 2-D image slice from the second reconstructed image volume, performing a frequency decomposition on the second 2-D image slice, and generating a second set of one or more display rendering parameters for rendering soft tissue content of the second 2-D image slice according to the one or more viewer adjustments;

generating rendered image slices by rendering the first and second image slices according to the generated first and second sets of display rendering parameters for bone or soft tissue content; and

displaying, storing, or transmitting the rendered image slices.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the viewer adjustments adjust the tone scale.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the one or more viewer adjustments for the first and second 2-D image slices include adjustments taken from the list consisting of brightness adjustment, latitude adjustment, detail contrast adjustment, sharpness adjustment, and noise adjustment.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein generating one or more parameters for rendering bone content comprises displaying the first 2-D image slice.

14. A method for rendering volume radiographic image content of a subject, the method executed at least in part on a computer and comprising:

acquiring a plurality of 2-D projection images by scanning the subject over a range of different exposure angles;

processing the 2-D projection images to form a first reconstructed bone volume having enhanced bone features and a second reconstructed soft tissue volume having enhanced soft tissue features;

extracting a first 2-D image slice from the first reconstructed bone volume and a corresponding second 2-D image slice from the second reconstructed soft tissue volume;

generating rendering parameters for each of the extracted first and second 2-D image slices by performing frequency decomposition on the corresponding image slice, segmenting bone from soft tissue within the corresponding image slice, and obtaining one or more viewer adjustments related to image rendering;

combining the first and second 2-D image slices to generate a combined 2-D image slice using weighted values from the generated rendering parameters; and

displaying, storing, or transmitting the combined 2-D image slice.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

extracting a third 2-D slice from the first reconstructed bone volume and a corresponding fourth 2-D image slice from the second reconstructed soft tissue volume;

combining the third and fourth 2-D image slices to generate a second combined 2-D image slice using weighted values from the generated rendering parameters; and

displaying, storing, or transmitting the second combined 2-D image slice.

16. A method for rendering volume radiographic image content of a subject, the method executed at least in part on a computer and comprising:

acquiring a plurality of 2-D projection images by scanning the subject over a range of different exposure angles;

processing the 2-D projection images to form a reconstructed volume;

extracting a 2-D image slice from the reconstructed volume and identifying at least first and second image features within the extracted 2-D image slice;

rendering the first identified image feature in the 2-D image slice using a first set of rendering parameters and rendering the second identified image feature according to image frequency content and according to a second set of rendering parameters that differ from the first set of rendering parameters; and

displaying, storing, or transmitting the rendered 2-D image slice.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein at least the first set of rendering parameters is stored as a look-up table.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising conditioning the reconstructed volume according to the first and second sets of rendering parameters and storing the conditioned reconstructed volume.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the first image feature is soft tissue or bone.