Retrieving and viewing medical images

• US 9,390,236 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2010
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Geller, Dieter, Kneser, Reinhard, Qian, Yuechen
• Primary Examiner(s): Alam, Hosain
• Assistant Examiner(s): May, Robert F
• Application Number:
  US13/320,956
• Publication Number:
  US 20120066241A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,248 Days
• Field of Search: 707/759, 707/737, 382/128, 705/3, 345/424
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies

Abstract

As medical imaging becomes more affordable, and the diversity of diagnostic modalities and therapeutic treatments increase, the amount of data being stored increases, and the problem becomes even more critical. One approach to improve retrieval efficiency of images is to employ semantics to establish a defined set of search and classification terms. However, such semantic systems still require the user to make a selection of the most appropriate term or terms to classify a report or image, and the accuracy of the results are thus dependent on the skill and knowledge of the classifier. According to a first aspect of the invention, a retriever is provided for retrieving a medical image having a searchable attribute, the retriever being configured to interface with a semantic database and an image database, and wherein the searchable attribute is determined by segmenting the medical image, using the anatomical model.

Claims

1. A hardware-implemented retriever that retrieves a medical image having a searchable attribute, the retriever being configured to interface with:

a semantic database configured to store and provide anatomical semantics,

a model database configured to store anatomical models, wherein the semantic database and the model database are different databases; and

an image database configured to store and provide the medical image, wherein the searchable attribute is determined by;

retrieving, from the model database, an anatomical model, wherein the anatomical model comprises a label associated with an anatomical structure;

determining a presence of the anatomical structure by segmenting at least one anatomical structure from the medical image using the anatomical model;

retrieving anatomical semantics from the semantic database, and

determining a relevant semantic for the at least one anatomical structure based upon the label;

the retriever comprising;

a user interface for providing a user selection, and

a processor configured to;

display a medical report of a patient on a display device and the medical report includes text with distinguished semantic terms and the distinguished semantic terms are selectable;

in response to an input selecting one or more distinguished semantic terms from the displayed medical report text, retrieve the medical image with searchable attributes based on the one or more distinguished semantic terms;

display the retrieved medical image according to one or more viewing attributes determined by a bounding box around the segmented structure and the bounding box includes all voxels of the segmented at least one anatomical structure, and the bounding box is identified by two points of segmented at least one anatomical structure, and the viewing attributes are generated based on the bounding box.

2. The retriever according to claim 1, wherein the distinguished semantic terms in the text of the medical report are distinguished for the user from the rest of the text of the medical report.

3. The retriever according to claim 2, wherein the user interface is configured to provide the medical report, the processor being further configured to:

receive the medical report;

retrieve anatomical semantics from the semantic database, and

search the medical report for anatomical semantics and distinguish the semantics found in the text.

4. The retriever according to claim 1, wherein the anatomical semantics are organized as a hierarchy, lexicon or ontology.

5. A workstation or a medical imaging acquisition apparatus comprising the retriever according to claim 1.

6. The retriever according to claim 1, wherein the viewing attributes are user entered through the user interface and received by the retriever.

7. The retriever according to claim 1, wherein the generated viewing attributes of the segmented at least one anatomical structure includes at least one of:

a selected image slice of a data volume;

a viewing angle;

a scaling;

a rotation; and

an initial zoom.

8. The retriever according to claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine a size of a display viewport such that a projection of the segmented at least one anatomical structure fits into the display viewport with the display of the retrieved at least one medical image.

9. The retriever according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

produce a voxel mask such that only the segmented at least one anatomical structure is rendered in the display of the retrieved at least one medical image.

10. A method of retrieving medical images, comprising:

storing and providing anatomical semantics from a semantic database;

storing anatomical models in a model database, wherein the semantic database and the model database are different databases;

displaying a medical report of a patient on a display device and the medical report includes text with distinguished semantic terms and the distinguished semantic terms are selectable;

in response to an input providing a user selection selecting one or more distinguished semantic terms from the displayed medical report text, retrieving the medical image from an image database that stores and provides medical images with searchable attributes based on the one or more distinguished semantic terms, wherein the searchable attributes are determined by retrieving, from the model database, an anatomical model, wherein the anatomical model comprises a label associated with an anatomical structure, determining a presence of the anatomical structure by segmenting at least one anatomical structure from the medical image using the anatomical model, retrieving anatomical semantics from the semantic database, and determining a relevant semantic for the at least one anatomical structure based upon the label;

displaying the retrieved medical image on the display device according to one or more viewing attributes; and

wherein the viewing attributes are determined for the medical image by determining a bounding box around the segmented structure and the bounding box includes all voxels of the segmented at least one anatomical structure, and the bounding box is identified by two points of segmented at least one anatomical structure, and the viewing attributes are generated based on the bounding box.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the viewing attributes are user entered through the user interface and received by the retriever.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the generated viewing attributes of the segmented at least one anatomical structure includes at least one of:

a selected image slice of a data volume;

a viewing angle;

a scaling;

a rotation; and

an initial zoom.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein displaying includes:

determining a size of a display viewport such that a projection of the segmented at least one anatomical structure fits into the display viewport with the display of the retrieved medical image.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein displaying includes:

producing a voxel mask such that only the segmented at least one anatomical structure is rendered in the display of the retrieved medical image.