Multi-dimensional image reconstruction and analysis for expert-system diagnosis

• US 7,872,235 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2006
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Spectrum Dynamics Medical Ltd
• Original Assignee: Spectrum Dynamics LLC
• Inventors: Vallabhajosula, Shankar, Dickman, Dalia, Nagler, Michael, Rousso, Benny
• Primary Examiner(s): Hannaher; Constantine
• Application Number:
  US11/794,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20080033291A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,829 Days
• Field of Search: 250/363.04
• US Class Current: 250/363.04
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02755 Radioactive tracers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/415 the glands, e.g. tonsils, adenoids or thymus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/416 the spleen
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/418 lymph vessels, ducts or nodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4519 Muscles A61B5/389, A61B5/224 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7203 for noise prevention, reduction or removal
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7264 Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems neural networks per se G06N3/00; expert systems per se G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/037 Emission tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/486 involving generating temporal series of image data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/507 for determination of haemodynamic parameters, e.g. perfusion CT
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 1/1647 Processing of scintigraphic data not related to a particular imaging system G01T1/2992
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

An electronic storage medium that comprises at least one radiopharmaceutical identity, SPECT measured values of at least one radiopharmaceutical kinetic parameter of a flow rate across a tissue membrane, for the radiopharmaceutical, and a set of instructions for associating the at least one radiopharmaceutical kinetic parameter with a disease signature.

Claims

1. A non-transitory tangible medium comprising

at least one radiopharmaceutical identity;

SPECT measured values of at least one radiopharmaceutical kinetic parameter of a flow rate across a tissue membrane, for the radiopharmaceutical, and

a set of instructions for associating the at least one radiopharmaceutical kinetic parameter with a disease signature.

2. The non-transitory tangible medium of claim 1, wherein the disease signature is indicative of perfusion.

3. The non-transitory tangible medium of claim 1, the disease signature is indicative of blood flow quality.

4. The non-transitory tangible medium of claim 1, wherein the disease signature is indicative of a metabolic rate.

5. Apparatus for performing automatic diagnosis, based on SPECT data, comprising at least one computer usable non-transitory tangible medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a set of instructions for:

providing pathological signatures, each characterized by a unique combination of at least two patient parameters, at least one of which relating to behavior of a radiopharmaceutical in vivo, as measured by SPECT;

measuring the at least two patient parameters, wherein the at least one patient parameter relating to the behavior of the radiopharmaceutical in vivo is measured by SPECT imaging; and

automatically diagnosing a pathology by automatically matching the at least two patient parameters and the pathological signatures.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein automatically diagnosing a pathology comprises automatically diagnosing based on a database of values for normal and diseased populations.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein automatically diagnosing includes determining a degree of a pathology.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein measuring includes measuring at least one radiopharmaceutical kinetic parameter of a flow rate across a tissue membrane.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the set of instructions further comprises determining a preferred administration dose of a pharmaceutical agent for at least one future administration to the body according to the pathology.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the future administration is of a radiopharmaceutical agent.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the future administration is of a therapeutic agent.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the future administration takes into account a member of a group consisting of:

toxicity, radiation dose, clearance rate, uptake rate by an organ, and a measurement provided by a previous administration to weigh benefit and potential harm.

13. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein at least one of the pathological signatures is indicative of perfusion.

14. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein at least one of the pathological signatures is indicative of blood flow quality.

15. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein at least one of the pathological signatures is indicative of a metabolic rate.

16. A non-transitory tangible medium comprising a set of instructions for:

providing pathological signatures, each characterized by a unique combination of at least two patient parameters, at least one of which relating to behavior of a radiopharmaceutical in vivo, as measured by SPECT;

measuring the at least two patient parameters, wherein the at least one patient parameter relating to the behavior of the radiopharmaceutical in vivo is measured by SPECT imaging; and

automatically diagnosing a pathology by automatically matching the at least two patient parameters and the pathological signatures.

17. The non-transitory tangible medium of claim 16, wherein automatically diagnosing a pathology comprises automatically diagnosing based on a database of values for normal and diseased populations.

18. The non-transitory tangible medium of claim 16, wherein measuring includes measuring at least one radiopharmaceutical kinetic parameter of a flow rate across a tissue membrane.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the automatically diagnosing further comprises automatically determining the degree of the pathology.

20. The non-transitory tangible medium of claim 16, wherein the at least two patient parameters comprises a distribution of the radiopharmaceutical in the body.

21. The non-transitory tangible medium of claim 16, wherein at least one of the at least two patient parameters is relating to a combination of at least two radiopharmaceuticals.

22. The non-transitory tangible medium of claim 16, wherein at least one of the at least two patient parameters is relating to a combination of at least two radiopharmaceuticals.