IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20150338489A1
• Filed: 08/07/2015
• Published: 11/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2013
• 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: NITTA, Shuhei, SHIODERA, Taichiro, TAKEGUCHI, Tomoyuki, YUI, Masao, SUGIURA, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 10,459,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0042 for the brain
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14507 specially adapted for measuring characteristics of body fluids other than blood devices for taking samples of body liquids A61B10/0045
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/704 Tables
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7292 Prospective gating, i.e. predicting the occurrence of a physiological event for use as a synchronisation signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/543 Control of the operation of the MR system, e.g. setting of acquisition parameters prior to or during MR data acquisition, dynamic shimming, use of one or more scout images for scan plane prescription G01R33/546 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5608 Data processing and visualization specially adapted for MR, e.g. for feature analysis and pattern recognition on the basis of measured MR data, segmentation of measured MR data, edge contour detection on the basis of measured MR data, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of signal-to-noise ratio by means of noise filtering or apodization, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of resolution by means for deblurring, windowing, zero filling, or generation of gray-scaled images, colour-coded images or images displaying vectors instead of pixels image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/56333 Involving spatial modulation of the magnetization within an imaged region, e.g. spatial modulation of magnetization [SPAMM] tagging perfusion imaging based on arterial spin tagging G01R33/56366
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5635 Angiography, e.g. contrast-enhanced angiography [CE-MRA] or time-of-flight angiography [TOF-MRA]

Abstract

An image processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to detect a region of body fluid flowing in a subject from time-series images acquired by scanning an imaging area including a tagged region to which a tagging pulse is applied and imaging the imaging area; generate a plurality of display images in which the detected body fluid region is displayed in a display mode determined based on a positional relation between the body fluid region and a boundary line, the boundary line determined based on the tagged region; and output time-series display images including the plurality of display images to be displayed on a display.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

processing circuitry configured to

detect a region of body fluid flowing in a subject from time-series images acquired by scanning an imaging area including a tagged region to which a tagging pulse is applied and imaging the imaging area;

generate a plurality of display images in which the detected body fluid region is displayed in a display mode determined based on a positional relation between the body fluid region and a boundary line, the boundary line determined based on the tagged region; and

output time-series display images including the plurality of display images to be displayed on a display.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the body fluid region is displayed in the display image according to the display mode determined based on whether the body fluid region is inside or outside of the tagged region.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to compare regions each detected as a region of the body flued between the time-series images and apply a predetermined display mode to a difference of the images between the compared regions.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine a region that has been detected as a region of the body fluid in a past image and is not detected as a region of the body fluid in a target image, and apply a predetermined display mode to the determined region.

5. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to acquire positional information of the tagged region from imaging conditions.

6. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate, as the plurality of display images, images in which the body fluid region is overlaid on each image with color-coding based on whether the body fluid region is inside or outside of the tagged region.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate, as the plurality of display images, images in which the body fluid region is overlaid on each image with color-coding based on whether the body fluid region is inside or outside of the tagged region and depending on a signal value in the body fluid region.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to apply the color-coding according to a color correspondence table that defines a corresponding relation between a signal value and a color and that has different ranges depending on time phases in a time-series.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate, as the plurality of display images, images in which information of the tagged region is overlaid on each image.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to change color density of the tagged region overlaid on each image based on time phases in a time-series.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the body fluid is cerebrospinal fluid.

12. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus comprising:

an MRI system configured to collect time-series images acquired by applying a tagging pulse to a tagged region in an imaging area and imaging the imaging area;

a display; and

processing circuitry configured to

detect a region of body fluid flowing in a subject from the time-series images;

generate a plurality of display images in which the detected body fluid region is displayed in a display mode determined based on a positional relation between the body fluid region and a boundary line, the boundary line determined based on the tagged region; and

output time-series display images including the plurality of display images to be displayed on the display.

13. An image processing method comprising

detecting a region of body fluid flowing in a subject from time-series images acquired by scanning an imaging area including a tagged region to which a tagging pulse is applied and imaging the imaging area;

generating a plurality of display images in which the detected body fluid region is displayed in a display mode determined based on a positional relation between the body fluid region and a boundary line, the boundary line determined based on the tagged region; and

outputting time-series display images including the plurality of display images to be displayed on a display.

14. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

detect a region of body fluid flowing in a subject from time-series images acquired by scanning an imaging area including a tagged region to which a tagging pulse is applied and imaging the imaging area;

generate a plurality of display images in which the detected body fluid region is displayed in a display mode determined based on a positional relation between the body fluid region and a boundary line, the boundary line determined based on the tagged region; and

output time-series display images including the plurality of display images to be displayed on a display.