Display System For the Evaluation of Mammographies

• US 20080304621A1
• Filed: 08/17/2005
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Huber, Wolfhard
• Application Number:
  US11/573,578
• Publication Number:
  US 20080304621A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 378/37
• 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 invention relates to a display system that is particularly suited for a comparative evaluation of mammographies (L, R) of a patient which are displayed as mirror images in two display areas (2a, 2b). According to one aspect of the invention, a user may move a virtual magnifying glass (10a) in one of the images (L), and the system automatically derives the corresponding object related movement of a virtual magnifying glass (10b) in the other image (R). Thus the magnifying glasses (10a, 10b, 10a′, 10b′ are moved analogously with respect to the anatomy across the images. According to an alternative method, zoom windows always remain at the same position of the display area while the images under them are moved synchronously in an object related way.

Claims

1. Display system (1) for the comparative evaluation of images (L, R, L′

, R′

) of related objects, comprising

at least two display areas (2a, 2b);

an input device (4, 5) for entering a reference movement in a selected one of the display areas (2a);

a control unit (3) that is adapted to perform the following steps;

a) displaying said images (L, R, L′

, R′

) of the related objects in the display areas (2a, 2b);

b) displaying zoomed views (10a, 10b, 10a′

, 10b′

, 11a, 11b) of sub-regions of said images (L, R, L′

, R′

) in the display areas (2a, 2b);

c) deriving desired movements in each display area (2a, 2b) from a given reference movement in one display area (2a) such that said desired movements are at least approximately identical with respect to the corresponding objects that are displayed in the display areas (2a, 2b);

d) movement of the displayed images (L, R, L′

, R′

) or of the zoomed views (10a, 10b, 10a′

, 10b′

) according to the desired movements.

2. The display system (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the zoomed views (10a, 10b, 10a′

, 10b′

, 11a, 11b) of the sub-regions are displayed as inserts in the corresponding images (L, R, L′

, R′

) at positions corresponding to said sub-regions.

3. The display system (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the images (L, R, L′

, R′

) of the related objects are medical images of the left and right breasts of a patient, particularly X-ray images.

4. The display system (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the objects are displayed as mirror images in two different display areas (2a, 2b).

5. The display system (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the display areas (2a, 2b) have the same size.

6. The display system (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the input device comprises a mouse (5) and/or a keyboard (4).

7. The display system (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that special image processing procedures are performed for the zoomed views (10a, 10b, 10a′

, 10b′

, 11a, 11b), the parameters of which may particularly be interactively set.

8. Examination apparatus, comprising

an imaging system for generating images of different objects, particularly an X-ray device for mammography;

a display system according to claim 1.

9. A method for the comparative evaluation of images (L, R, L′

, R′

) of related objects, comprising the following steps;

a) displaying said images (L, R, L′

, R′

) in different display areas (2a, 2b);

b) displaying zoomed views (10a, 10b, 10a′

, 10b′

, 11a, 11b) of sub-regions of said images (L, R, L′

, R′

) in the display areas (2a, 2b);

c) deriving desired movements in each display area (2a, 2b) from a given reference movement in one display area (2a) such that said desired movements are at least approximately identical with respect to the corresponding objects that are displayed in the display areas (2a, 2b);

d) movement of the displayed images (L, R, L′

, R′

) or of the zoomed views (10a, 10b, 10a′

, 10b′

) according to the desired movements.

10. A record carrier on which a computer program for the comparative evaluation of digital images is stored, said program being adapted to execute a method according to claim 9.