Cardiac contour propagation

• US 9,684,955 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2008
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Breeuwer, Marcel, Hautvast, Guillaume Leopold Theodorus Frederik
• Primary Examiner(s): Reyes, Reginald R
• Application Number:
  US12/598,534
• Publication Number:
  US 20100135551A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,344 Days
• Field of Search: 382128
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10072 Tomographic images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10132 Ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30048 Heart; Cardiac
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30196 Human being; Person
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/149 involving deformable models, e.g. active contour models

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for analyzing a multidimensional cardiac image set, the multidimensional cardiac image set comprising: a first image set of a heart; and a second image set of a heart, wherein the first image set is segmented resulting into respective first cardiac contours for each image within the first image set; and the second image set is segmented resulting into respective second cardiac contours for each image within the second image set, the method comprising: determining resulting cardiac contours for each image within the first image set and for each image within the second image set from the first cardiac contours and the second cardiac contours.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing a multidimensional cardiac image set generated by an imaging scanner, the multidimensional cardiac image set comprising:

a first image set of a heart generated by the imaging scanner; and

a second image set of a heart generated by the imaging scanner, wherein the first and second image sets are different image sets, the method comprising;

segmenting the first image set resulting in respective first cardiac contours for each image within the first image set;

segmenting the second image set resulting in respective second cardiac contours for each image within the second image set and;

determining, by a processor, resulting cardiac contours for each image within the first image set and for each image within the second image set from the first cardiac contours and the second cardiac contours.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said first image set of a heart and said second image set of a heart relate to different levels of cardiac stress.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the first image set is further segmented resulting into further respective first cardiac contours;

and

the second image set is further segmented resulting into further respective second cardiac contours, the method comprising;

determining the resulting cardiac contours for each image within the first image set and for each image within the second image set from the first cardiac contours, the second cardiac contours, the further first cardiac contours and the further second cardiac contours.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the further respective first cardiac contour and/or the further respective second cardiac contour is/are specified manually.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the resulting cardiac contours by using fixed weights for the first, second, further first, and further second cardiac contours.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the resulting cardiac contours by using variable weights depending upon a position of an image within the first and second image set for the first, second, further first, and further second cardiac contours.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the resulting cardiac contours by using predefined weights for the first, second, further first, and further second cardiac contours.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the resulting cardiac contours by using adaptive weights depending upon the heart for the first, second, further first, and further second cardiac contours.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the resulting cardiac contours by using a distance between a first image within the first image set and a second image within the second image set.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the resulting cardiac contours by using temporal information from the segmentation and the further segmentation.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein a contribution of the first cardiac contours to the resulting contours and a contribution of the second cardiac contours to the resulting contours are determined based on weights.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first and second cardiac contours correspond to different propagation paths, and further comprising:

determining a resulting contour for an image in one image set based on segmentations of the one image and images in first and second image sets by indicating a weight of the segmentations of the one image and the images in the first and second image sets.

13. A system for analyzing a multidimensional cardiac image set generated by an imaging scanner, the multidimensional cardiac image set comprising:

a first image set of a heart generated by the imaging scanner; and

a second image set of a heart generated by the imaging scanner, wherein the first and second image sets are different image sets, the first image set is segmented resulting into respective first cardiac contours for each image within the first image set; and

the second image set is segmented resulting into respective second cardiac contours for each image within the second image set, the system comprising;

a processor configured to compute resulting cardiac contours for each image within the first image set and for each image within the second image set from the first cardiac contours and the second cardiac contours.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein said first image set of a heart and said second image set of a heart relate to different levels of cardiac stress.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein the first image set is further segmented resulting into further respective first cardiac contours;

and

the second image set is further segmented resulting into further respective second cardiac contours, wherein the processor is further configured to compute the resulting cardiac contours for each image within the first image set and for each image within the second image set from the first cardiac contours, the second cardiac contours, the further first cardiac contours and the further second cardiac contours.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the system moreover comprises an input device for letting a user manually specify the further respective first cardiac contour and/or the further respective second cardiac contour.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program product to be loaded by a computer arrangement, comprising instructions for analyzing a multidimensional cardiac image set generated by an imaging scanner, the multidimensional cardiac image set comprising:

a first image set of a heart generated by the imaging scanner, wherein the imaging scanner is at least one of a magnetic resonance (MR), a computed tomography (CT), or an ultrasound (US) imaging scanner, and

a second image set of a heart generated by the imaging scanner, wherein the first and second image sets are different image sets, the first image set is segmented resulting into respective first cardiac contours for each image within the first image set; and

the second image set is segmented resulting into respective second cardiac contours for each image within the second image set, the computer arrangement comprising;

processing unit and a memory, the computer program product, after being loaded, providing said processing unit with the capability to carry out the following task determining resulting cardiac contours for each image within the first image set and for each image within the second image set from the first cardiac contours and the second cardiac contours.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 17, further providing said processing unit with the capability to carry out determining the resulting cardiac contours by using a distance between a first image within the first image set and a second image within the second image set.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 17, further providing said processing unit with the capability to carry out determining the resulting cardiac contours by using temporal information from the segmentation and the further segmentation.