Method and apparatus for an improved computer aided diagnosis system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of analyzing a medical image to use a CAD system to detect anatomical abnormalities obtained from one of a plurality of original sources, the method comprising:
- providing a computer-aided detection (CAD) system configured to numerically process a medical image for identifying anatomical abnormalities therein, the CAD system having been trained using a training image set obtained from a first of said original sources;
defining a canonical contrast response curve based on the training image set and the first original source;
normalizing each medical image such that each medical image conforms to the canonical contrast response curve for image analysis regardless of the original source of the medical image; and
numerically processing each of the normalized medical images using the CAD system to identify anatomical abnormalities therein.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for analyzing a medical image obtained from one of a plurality of modalities, the method comprising normalizing the medical image to create a uniform display quality regardless of the original modality of the image.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method of analyzing a medical image to use a CAD system to detect anatomical abnormalities obtained from one of a plurality of original sources, the method comprising:
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providing a computer-aided detection (CAD) system configured to numerically process a medical image for identifying anatomical abnormalities therein, the CAD system having been trained using a training image set obtained from a first of said original sources; defining a canonical contrast response curve based on the training image set and the first original source; normalizing each medical image such that each medical image conforms to the canonical contrast response curve for image analysis regardless of the original source of the medical image; and numerically processing each of the normalized medical images using the CAD system to identify anatomical abnormalities therein. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus to improve medical imaging comprising:
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a computer-aided detection (CAD) system configured to numerically process a medical image for identifying anatomical abnormalities therein, the CAD system having been trained using a training image set obtained from a first of said original sources; an image analysis system to define a canonical contrast response curve based on the training image set and the first original source, the image analysis system further to normalize a medical image to conform to the canonical contrast response curve regardless of an original format of the image; and the CAD system further to process the normalized medical image to identify anatomical abnormalities therein, thereby permitting a single analysis algorithm to be used on all images regardless of original source. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A system comprising:
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a computer-aided detection (CAD) system configured to numerically process a medical image for identifying anatomical abnormalities therein, the CAD system having been trained using a training image set obtained from a first source; a source of image data, each image in the image data having one of a multiplicity of spatial resolutions and a multiplicity of contrast responses; a preprocessing module to normalize the image by transforming the image data into a “
canonical”
form with uniform contrast response, overall level and pixel size, the canonical form based on the training image set and the first source;such that the image analyzed by a computer aided diagnosis system has a uniform contrast response regardless of the original source of the image the CAD further to numerically process each of the normalized images to identify anatomical abnormalities therein. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A system comprising:
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a source of image data; a preprocessing module transforming the medical image into a “
canonical”
form with a universal contrast response, overall level, and pixel size, such that the contrast response of the medical image is the same as other medical images in said canonical form;a computer-aided detection (CAD) module to process the image data to detect abnormal anatomical features meeting selected criteria and to flag the abnormal anatomical features as suspicious regions; a post-processing module to modify a contrast response curve of the image to increase visibility of the suspicious regions. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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28. A system comprising:
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a source of medical images, each image having one of a multiplicity of spatial resolutions and one of a multiplicity of contrast responses; a preprocessing module transforming the medical image into a “
canonical”
form with a uniform contrast response, overall level, and pixel size;a CAD module to process the medical image to detect abnormal anatomical features meeting selected criteria and to generate annotation maps identifying image portions corresponding to said abnormal anatomical features; a post-processing module to modify a contrast response curve of the image to increase visibility of suspicious regions associated with the abnormal anatomical features; and a display to selectively display annotation maps at positions corresponding to suspicious regions. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31)
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Specification