METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR GENERATING DISPLAY DATA

• US 20090016582A1
• Filed: 10/02/2006
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Royal Philips Electronics NV (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Royal Philips Electronics NV (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Penn, Alan, Thompson, Scott F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,194,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7435 Displaying user selection data, e.g. icons in a graphical user interface
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/465 adapted to display user selection data, e.g. graphical user interface, icons or menus
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/466 adapted to display 3D data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/5223 generating planar views from image data, e.g. extracting a coronal view from a 3D image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

A method of aiding in the evaluation of lesions in a body using a plurality of sets of image data of sections of the body region in mutually parallel planes. Processing of the data requires several steps, including pixel intensity pattern recognition, contouring of the regions of probable pathology, thresholding and 3-dimensional clustering, providing each pixel with a color representative of a selected opacity level and displaying an image of the region of interest where areas of probable pathological conditions are highlighted.

Claims

1. A method for aiding evaluation of lesions in a body part comprising:

forming a plurality of sets of image data of sections of a body region in mutually parallel planes, wherein each image is composed of a matrix of pixels and each pixel has an intensity or color value representative of at least one physiological characteristic of a respective elemental area of the section;

processing the plurality of images to create at least one additional image of the body region in at least one further plane transverse to the mutually parallel planes; and

displaying the additional image of the body region, the display having first display characteristics of the intensity and/or color of the additional image that are representative of a first physiological characteristic of the body part, and independent second display characteristics of the intensity and/or color of the additional image that are representative of a second physiological characteristic of the body part.

2. A method for aiding evaluation of lesions in a body part comprising:

in a first step, obtaining a plurality of first data sets each derived from a medical image of a respective one of a plurality of selected planar regions of the body part, each of said first data sets being composed of a matrix of data values, each value representing the intensity of a pixel in the medical image of the respective one of a plurality of mutually parallel planar regions of the body part;

in a second step, processing the plurality of first data sets to form a corresponding plurality of second data sets, each of said second data sets containing data representing pixel intensity patterns in the first data sets;

in a third step, processing the plurality of first data sets to form a plurality of third data sets, each third data set containing data representing contours or bounding boxes;

in a fourth step, processing the plurality of third data sets to form a corresponding plurality of fourth data sets by first thresholding the intensities of the pixels in the third data set at some given value, and then forming n-connected, 3-dimensional clusters;

in a fifth step, processing the fourth data sets into fifth data sets by modifying the pixel intensities within each fourth data set so that all pixels within each fourth data set have the same intensity;

in a sixth step, converting the fifth data sets into sixth data sets containing, for each pixel in each of the fifth data sets, data, for example RGB data, representing a particular color and data representing a selected opacity level (α

); and

using the sixth data sets to produce a display an image of the body part that highlights the likelihood of the existence of a pathological condition.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said second step is carried out to cause each said second data sets to include data representing, for each pixel of the first data set, a selected opacity level.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said second step comprises 3D rendering operations.

5. A method of evaluating a lesion in an image of a planar section of a body region, the image being composed of a matrix of pixels each having an intensity representative of a physiological characteristic of a respective elemental area of the section;

selecting a first group of substantially contiguous pixels indicative of a first characteristic representing the probability of the presence of pathology;

selecting a second group of substantially contiguous pixels, different from the first group of substantially contiguous pixels, representing the probability of the presence of pathology; and

displaying the image in a manner to visibly distinguish the first group from the second group.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the pathology is cancer.

7. The method according to claim 5 wherein the probability of the presence of pathology of the first group of substantially contiguous pixels is different from the probability of the presence of pathology of the second group of substantially contiguous pixels.

8. The method according to claim 5 wherein the probability of the presence of pathology of the first group of substantially contiguous pixels is equal to the probability of the presence of pathology of the second group of substantially contiguous pixels.