User interface for efficiently displaying relevant oct imaging data

• US 20080100612A1
• Filed: 10/26/2007
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carl Zeiss Meditec Incorporated (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Original Assignee: Carl Zeiss Meditec Incorporated (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)
• Inventors: Straub, Jochen, Stetson, Paul, Oakley, Jonathan, Dastmalchi, Shahram
• Granted Patent: US 8,223,143 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/418
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0025 characterised by electronic signal processing, e.g. eye models
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/0058 for multiple images
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/102 for optical coherence tomography [OCT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0066 Optical coherence imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7445 Display arrangements, e.g. multiple display units
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/748 Selection of a region of interest, e.g. using a graphics tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 9/02091 Tomographic interferometers, e.g. based on optical coherence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/08 Volume rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/00 Manipulating 3D models or images for computer graphics
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/003 Navigation within 3D models or images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/41 Medical
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/028 Multiple view windows (top-side-front-sagittal-orthogonal)
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

The present invention is an OCT imaging system user interface for efficiently providing relevant image displays to the user. These displays are used during image acquisition to align patients and verify acquisition image quality. During image analysis, these displays indicate positional relationships between displayed data images, automatically display suspicious analysis, automatically display diagnostic data, simultaneously display similar data from multiple visits, improve access to archived data, and provide other improvements for efficient data presentation of relevant information.

Claims

1-11. -11. (canceled)

12. A graphical user interface for use with optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume data, said interface comprising:

a. first and second OCT image displays simultaneously presenting OCT images corresponding to at least two different transverse slices through the eye; and

b. an indicium identifying within the first OCT image the location where the second OCT image slice was taken and wherein the user can manipulate the indicium to identify a new location which results in the system automatically changing the second OCT image to the corresponding slice identified by the indicium of the first OCT image.

13. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 12, wherein the indicium is a line overlaying the first OCT image.

14. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 13, wherein the line has a particular color and wherein that same color is associated with the second OCT image.

15. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 13, wherein a second line overlays the second OCT image and indicates the location where the slice in the first OCT image was taken and wherein the user can move the second line to a new position which results in the system automatically changing said first OCT image to the corresponding slice identified by the repositioned line in the second OCT image.

16. A graphical user as recited in claim 13, wherein said system further includes a fundus imaging module aligned with the OCT module, said system further including a fundus image display of the eye, said fundus image display further including indicia overlaying the fundus image, said indicia indicating the location of the slices of the first and second OCT images with respect to the fundus image.

17. A graphical user as recited in claim 16, wherein said indicia is a cross-hair target.

18. A graphical user as recited in claim 13, wherein said system further includes a fundus imaging module aligned with the OCT module, said system further including a fundus image display of the eye, said fundus image display further including lines overlaying the fundus image, said lines indicating the location of the slices of the first and second OCT images with respect to the fundus image.

19. A graphical user interface as recited in claim 12, wherein the first OCT image is displayed at higher resolution than the second OCT image.

20-28. -28. (canceled)

29. A graphical user interface for use with a system which includes an optical coherence tomography (OCT) module and a fundus imaging module both of which are aligned with a patient'"'"'s eye, and a host CPU, said interface comprising:

a. a display for presenting a fundus image of the eye; and

b. an image generated from OCT measurement data wherein said OCT based image is overlaid on said fundus image.

30. An interface as recited in claim 29, wherein the fundus image and the image generated from OCT measurement data are registered.

31. An interface as recited in claim 30, wherein the fundus image and the image generated from OCT measurement data were not generated during the same exam.

32. An interface as recited in claim 31, wherein the observed level of registration between the fundus image and the image generated from OCT measurement data is used to facilitate the initial alignment for the current exam.

33. An interface as recited in claim 32, wherein the user performs the initial alignment manually.

34. An interface as recited in claim 32, wherein the initial alignment is performed automatically by the host CPU.

35. An interface as recited in claim 34, wherein the host CPU performs the adjustment by adjusting the scanning mirrors.

36. An interface as recited in claim 34, wherein the system further includes a fixation target subsystem and the host CPU performs the adjustment by moving the fixation target, causing the patient to change the position of the patient'"'"'s eye.

37. An interface as recited in claim 29, wherein the image generated from OCT measurement data is an integrated en-face image.

38. An interface as recited in claim 37, wherein blood vessels in the fundus image are rendered with one color and blood vessels in the en-face image are rendered in a different color in order to aid a user in registering the images.

39. An interface as recited in claim 29, where a partial en-face image is displayed in real time during data acquisition to determine if alignment of the OCT module is correct prior to the completion of the full data acquisition for the en-face image.

40. An interface as recited in claim 29, wherein the image generated from OCT measurement data is a thickness map.

41. An interface as recited in claim 29, wherein the fundus image is derived from information obtained on a previous patient visit and is used to reposition the patient in the same position as in the previous visit.

42. An interface as recited in claim 29, wherein the level of transparency of the overlay is variable.

43. An interface as recited in claim 42, wherein the level of transparency of a region of the overlay is selected based on the level of pathology associated with that region of the overlay.

44. A display method for viewing optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume image data of a patient'"'"'s eye acquired during a first visit and a subsequent second visit, said method comprising:

a. registering a portion of the OCT image data from the first visit with a portion of the OCT image data from the second visit; and

b. displaying one slice of OCT image data from the first visit simultaneously with a registered slice from the second visit to permit the user to evaluate change between the first and second visits.

45. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein the displaying step is performed in sequence, presenting a series of registered images, one from the first visit and one from second visit adjacent to one another.

46. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein the step of registering the image data includes:

a. registering a first OCT en-face image formed from the OCT volume acquired during the first visit with a second OCT en-face image formed from the OCT volume acquired during the second visit; and

b. registering the OCT volume acquired during the first visit with the OCT volume acquired during the second visit in accordance with the registered first and second en-face images.

47. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein the step of registering the image data includes registering a first region of an OCT volume from the first visit to a corresponding second region of an OCT volume from the second visit.

48. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein the rate at which the series of registered images are displayed is variable.

49. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein the OCT volume is comprised of B-scan slices.

50. A method as recited in claim 49, further including obtaining a fundus image registered to the first volume and displaying the fundus image, said fundus image including at least one slice locator wherein the first region is a slice of the first volume selected by the position of the slice locator in the fundus image.

51. A method as recited in claim 49, further including selecting a first sequence of slices from the first visit, creating a corresponding second sequence of slices of the second volume wherein each slice from the first sequence is registered to a corresponding slice of the second volume and synchronously displaying first sequence and the second sequence.

52. A method as recited in claim 51, wherein the synchronously displaying sequences start automatically.

53. A method as recited in claim 51, wherein rate of display of the synchronously displaying sequences is adjustable.

54. A method as recited in claim 51, wherein rate of display of the synchronously displaying sequences is variable.

55. A method of aligning a patient'"'"'s eye with a system that includes an iris viewer and a viewport showing an image of the patient'"'"'s eye obtained from the iris viewer, said system further including a motorized chinrest for holding the patient'"'"'s head with respect to the iris viewer, said method comprising the steps of:

a. displaying an image of the patient'"'"'s iris in the viewport; and

b. determining the misalignment between the iris viewer and the center of the iris and automatically generating output signals for controlling the movement of the motorized chinrest to minimize the misalignment between the iris viewer and the center of the iris.

56. A method as recited in claim 55, wherein misalignment between the iris viewer and the center of the iris is determined by the focus of the iris image displayed in the viewport.

57-62. -62. (canceled)

63. A method for propagating modifications to the segmentation of optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume data comprising:

a. acquiring OCT volume data;

b. segmenting the data to identify a surface within the OCT volume;

c. displaying a first slice of the OCT volume data which includes at least a portion of the surface;

d. accepting user modifications of the surface at one or more points with respect to the displayed first slice; and

e. automatically modifying the segmentation of the data with respect to other slices of the OCT volume data based on the user modification to the first slice.

64. A method according to claim 63, wherein the OCT volume is acquired from a storage archive or system memory.

65. A method as recited in claim 63, further including:

f. displaying a second slice of OCT volume data which includes another portion of the surface,

g. accepting user modification of the second portion of the surface at one or more points with respect to the displayed second slice; and

h. automatically modifying the segmentation of the data with respect to other slices of the OCT volume data based on the user modification to the first and second slices.

66. A method as recited in claim 65, wherein the automatic modification between the first and second slices utilizes interpolation.

67. A method as recited in claim 63, further comprising:

deriving a confidence map containing a segmentation confidence at each point of the segmentation result.

68. A method as recited in claim 67, wherein the automatic modification is a function of the confidence map.

69. A method as recited in claim 68, wherein the automatic modification is interpolation of segmentation results from the user modified segmentation result through a region of low confidence to a region of high confidence.

70-80. -80. (canceled)