Apparatus and method for providing additional information for each region of interest

• US 9,842,270 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2015
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Chon Hee, Seong, Yeong Kyeong
• Primary Examiner(s): Bitar, Nancy
• Application Number:
  US14/700,338
• Publication Number:
  US 20150317794A1
• Time in Patent Office: 957 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/06 Measuring blood flow measuring volume flow in general G01F, e.g. G01F1/66, G01F1/72; measuring speed of fluids in general G01P5/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0825 for diagnosis of the breast, e.g. mammography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4416 related to combined acquisition of different diagnostic modalities, e.g. combination of ultrasound and X-ray acquisitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/461 Displaying means of special interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/469 for selection of a region of interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/485 involving measuring strain or elastic properties
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5246 combining images from the same or different imaging techniques, e.g. color Doppler and B-mode
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/5261 combining images from different diagnostic modalities, e.g. ultrasound and X-ray
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10081 Computed x-ray tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10088 Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10116 X-ray image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10132 Ultrasound image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20104 Interactive definition of region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing additional information for region of interest. The apparatus includes a region of interest extractor configured to extract regions of interest from a first medical image and at least one second medical image, a region of interest merger configured to merge a region of interest of the at least one second medical image into the first medical image, an additional information determiner configured to determine additional information required for each region of interest, and an additional information provider configured to provide the determined additional information for the each region of interest.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing additional information for region of interest, the apparatus comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

extract at least one region of interest from a first medical image,

extract at least one region of interest from each of at least one second medical image,

merge the at least one region of interest extracted from each of the at least one second medical image into the first medical image,

determine additional information needed for a diagnosis of each of the at least one region of interest merged into the first medical image by retrieving at least one rule for the merged at least one region of interest from at least one pre-stored rule, and selecting the additional information based on the retrieved at least one rule, and

provide the determined additional information,

wherein the determined additional information comprises at least one of;

new additional information that refers to information associated with examinations to be additionally conducted for an accurate diagnosis, or

previous additional information that refers to examination-related information pre-stored in a medical database to be additionally provided for an accurate diagnosis.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one second medical image comprises one or more medical images captured prior to the first medical image.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to register the first medical image and the at least one second medical image.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory configured to store at least one rule that defines feature values of regions of interest and at least one additional information required for the feature values.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to acquire the determined additional information.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a display configured to display the provided determined additional information.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the apparatus is configured to be installed in an ultrasonic imaging device comprising at least two imaging modes of:

a bloodstream imaging mode for obtaining a bloodstream image,

an elastography mode for obtaining an elastography image,

a general ultrasonic mode for obtaining a general ultrasonic mode, or

a high-resolution ultrasonic mode for obtaining a high-resolution ultrasonic image.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to acquire the determined additional information for each of the at least one region of interest by changing an imaging mode of the ultrasonic imaging device based on the determined additional information.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to provide a user with the acquired determined additional information.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one second medical image comprises one or more images of a portion identical to a portion captured by the first medical image.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first medical image and the at least one second medical image are acquired from a medical database.

12. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

extract at least one feature value, from among the feature values, for the merged at least one region of interest, and

retrieve the at least one rule from the stored at least one rule based on the extracted at least one feature value.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to extract the at least one feature value based on analyzing information, stored in a medical database, of the each of the merged at least one region of interest.

14. A method for providing additional information for region of interest, the method comprising:

extracting at least one region of interest from a first medical image;

extracting at least one region of interest from each of at least one second medical image;

merging the at least one region of interest extracted from the at least one second medical image into the first medical image;

determining additional information needed for a diagnosis of each of the at least one region of interest merged into the first medical image; and

providing, via a user interface, the determined additional information,

wherein the determined additional information comprises at least one of;

new additional information that refers to information associated with examinations to be additionally conducted for an accurate diagnosis, or

previous additional information that refers to examination-related information pre-stored in a medical database to be additionally provided for an accurate diagnosis,

wherein the determining of the additional information comprises;

retrieving at least one rule for the merged at least one region of interest from among one or more pre-stored rules, and

selecting the additional information according to the retrieved at least one rule.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one second medical image comprises a medical image captured before the first medical image.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the merging of the at least one region of interest extracted from the at least one second medical image into the first medical image comprises registering the first medical image and the at least one second medical image.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the retrieving at least one rule comprises:

extracting at least one feature value of each of the merged at least one region of interest by analyzing information, stored in a medical database, on each of the merged at least one region of interest, and

retrieving the at least one rule from among the one or more pre-stored rules based on the extracted at least one feature value.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

acquiring the determined additional information for the each of the merged at least one region of interest.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the acquiring of the determined additional information for the each of the merged at least one region of interest comprises acquiring the determined additional information for the each of the merged at least one region of interest from a medical database.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon at least one program comprising commands, which when executed by a computer, performs a method, the method comprising:

extracting at least one region of interest from a first medical image;

extracting at least one region of interest from each of at least one second medical image;

merging the at least one region of interest extracted from the at least one second medical image into the first medical image;

determining additional information needed for a diagnosis of each of the at least region of interest merged into the first medical image; and

providing, via a user interface, the determined additional information,

wherein the determined additional information comprises at least one of;

new additional information that refers to information associated with examinations to be additionally conducted for an accurate diagnosis, or

previous additional information that refers to examination-related information pre-stored in a medical database to be additionally provided for an accurate diagnosis,

wherein the determining of the additional information comprises;

retrieving at least one rule for the merged at least one region of interest from among one or more pre-stored rules, and

selecting the additional information according to the retrieved at least one rule.