MEDICAL IMAGING APPARATUS AND MEDICAL DISPLAY IMAGE GENERATION METHOD

• US 20090264731A1
• Filed: 04/17/2009
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: SUGIURA, Satoshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,629,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/419
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0037 Performing a preliminary scan, e.g. a prescan for identifying a region of interest
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7285 for synchronising or triggering a physiological measurement or image acquisition with a physiological event or waveform, e.g. an ECG signal A61B6/5205, A61B6/541, A61B8/5207, A61B8/543 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/488 involving pre-scan acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/541 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/543 Control of the operation of the MR system, e.g. setting of acquisition parameters prior to or during MR data acquisition, dynamic shimming, use of one or more scout images for scan plane prescription G01R33/546 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5601 involving use of a contrast agent for contrast manipulation, e.g. a paramagnetic, super-paramagnetic, ferromagnetic or hyperpolarised contrast agent
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5605 by transferring coherence or polarization from a spin species to another, e.g. creating magnetization transfer contrast [MTC], polarization transfer using nuclear Overhauser enhancement [NOE]
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5613 Generating steady state signals, e.g. low flip angle sequences [FLASH]
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5635 Angiography, e.g. contrast-enhanced angiography [CE-MRA] or time-of-flight angiography [TOF-MRA]

Abstract

A medical imaging apparatus includes a positioning image acquisition unit which acquires a positioning image concerning a subject, a unit which sets an region of interest in the positioning image in accordance with specification performed by an operator, a monitoring image acquisition unit which repeatedly acquires a monitoring image concerning the subject at predetermined time intervals, and a generation unit which combines an region-of-interest image representing the region of interest with the monitoring image to generate a display image every time the monitoring image is acquired.

Claims

1. A medical imaging apparatus comprising:

a positioning image acquisition unit which acquires a positioning image concerning a subject;

a unit which sets an region of interest in the positioning image in accordance with specification performed by an operator;

a monitoring image acquisition unit which repeatedly acquires a monitoring image concerning the subject at predetermined time intervals; and

a generation unit which combines an region-of-interest image representing the region of interest with the monitoring image to generate a display image every time the monitoring image is acquired.

2. The medical imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a diagnostic image acquisition unit which acquires a diagnostic image concerning an imaging region including a flow path of a fluid processed to be emphasized beyond other regions in the subject; and

a unit which controls the positioning image acquisition unit, the monitoring image acquisition unit, and the diagnostic image acquisition unit to start repeated acquisition of the monitoring image after acquisition of the positioning image and stop acquisition of the monitoring image in accordance with instruction of acquisition of the diagnostic image issued by the operator, thereby acquiring the diagnostic image.

3. The medical imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a display unit;

a unit which controls the display unit to display the latest generated display image.

4. The medical imaging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit which notifies the operator of guidance information that is used to guide a region preferable as the region of interest.

5. The medical imaging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the guidance information is at least one of an image obtained by combining an image similar to the positioning image with an image representing an region of interest preferable in the image and an image showing a region of the subject which should be included in the region of interest in the form of characters.

6. The medical imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of a resolution and contrast of the monitoring image is lower than that of be positioning image.

7. A medical display image generation method comprising:

acquiring a positioning image concerning a subject;

setting an region of interest in the positioning image in accordance with specification made by an operator;

repeatedly acquiring a monitoring image concerning the subject at predetermined time intervals;

combining an region-of-interest image showing the region of interest with the monitoring image to display a display image every time the monitoring image is acquired.