Systems, methods, and computer program products for analysis of vessel attributes for diagnosis, disease staging, and surgical planning

• US 8,090,164 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2004
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina System)
• Original Assignee: University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina System)
• Inventors: Bullitt, Elizabeth, Aylward, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Fitzpatrick, Atiba O
• Application Number:
  US10/569,436
• Publication Number:
  US 20070019846A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,727 Days
• Field of Search: 382128-134, 128920-930, 250455-465, 356 39- 49, 600407-414, 600424-426
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20128 Atlas-based segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30101 Blood vessel; Artery; Vein; Vascular
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0014 using an image reference approach
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/41 based on statistical description of texture

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer program products for analysis of vessel attributes for diagnosis, disease staging, and surgical planning are disclosed. A method for analyzing blood vessel attributes may include developing an atlas including statistical measures for at least one blood vessel attribute. The statistical measures can be developed from blood vessel image data from different individuals. Blood vessel attribute measurements can be obtained from an individual subject. The individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements can be compared to the statistical measures in the atlas. Output may be produced indicative of a physical characteristic of the individual based on results from the comparison.

Claims

1. A method for analyzing blood vessel attributes, the method comprising:

(a) developing an atlas including at least one blood vessel attribute from blood vessel image data from a population including a plurality of different individuals, wherein developing an atlas includes developing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population, each location in the map indicating a statistical value of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population, wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals to a template, wherein the template represents an average of blood vessel image data for the individuals;

(b) obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements for an individual subject;

(c) comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas, wherein comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes comparing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the individual to the statistical values at corresponding locations in the atlas; and

(d) based on the comparison, determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the blood vessel attributes include three-dimensional blood vessel attributes.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the three-dimensional blood vessel attributes include at least one of tortuosity, density, count of terminal branches, vessel radius, and ratio of vessel volume to tumor volume.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements from an individual subject includes:

(a) obtaining blood vessel image data for the individual subject; and

(b) segmenting the blood vessel image data for the individual subject.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the population includes individuals having a particular pathology.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the subject includes determining whether the subject has a particular disease.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes determining whether the individual subject has a tumor.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes identifying the stage of a disease for the individual subject.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein identifying a stage of a disease for the individual subject includes identifying a tumor grade for the individual subject.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes evaluating the individual subject'"'"'s response to medical treatment.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes identifying the location of an abnormality in the individual subject.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes identifying the location of a functional site in the individual subject'"'"'s brain.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the individual subject comprises a human subject.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the individual subject includes a non-human subject having a vasculature system.

51. The method of claim 1 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals with a template using a rigid transformation.

52. The method of claim 1 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals with a template using an affine transformation.

53. The method of claim 1 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals with a template using a fully deformable transformation.

54. The method of claim 1 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data of the different individuals to a template model using tissue-based registration.

55. The method of claim 1 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data of the different individuals to a template model using vessel-based registration.

56. The method of claim 1 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals to a template, wherein the template is based on blood vessel image data for one of the individuals.

5. A method for analyzing blood vessel attributes, the method comprising:

(a) developing an atlas including at least one blood vessel attribute from blood vessel image data from a population including a plurality of different individuals, wherein developing an atlas includes developing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population, each location in the map indicating a statistical value of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population;

(b) obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements for an individual subject, wherein obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements from an individual subject includes;

(a) obtaining blood vessel image data for the individual subject; and

(b) segmenting the blood vessel image data for the individual subject;

(c) comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas, wherein comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes comparing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the individual to the statistical values at corresponding locations in the atlas, wherein comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes registering the segmented blood vessel image data for the subject with the atlas and computing z-score values comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel image data with corresponding data in the atlas; and

(d) based on the comparison, determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject.

6. A method for analyzing blood vessel attributes, the method comprising:

(a) developing an atlas including at least one blood vessel attribute from blood vessel image data from a population including a plurality of different individuals, wherein developing an atlas includes developing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population, each location in the map indicating a statistical value of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population;

(b) obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements for an individual subject, wherein obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements from an individual subject includes;

(a) obtaining blood vessel image data for the individual subject; and

(b) segmenting the blood vessel image data for the individual subject;

(c) comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas, wherein comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes comparing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the individual to the statistical values at corresponding locations in the atlas, wherein comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes registering the segmented blood vessel image data for the subject with the atlas and computing z-score values comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel image data with corresponding data in the atlas, wherein computing z-score values includes computing voxel-by-voxel z-score values for the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel image data; and

(d) based on the comparison, determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject.

7. A method for analyzing blood vessel attributes, the method comprising:

(a) developing an atlas including at least one blood vessel attribute from blood vessel image data from a population including a plurality of different individuals, wherein developing an atlas includes developing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population, each location in the map indicating a statistical value of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population, wherein the population includes randomly-selected individuals;

(b) obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements for an individual subject;

(c) comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas, wherein comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes comparing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the individual to the statistical values at corresponding locations in the atlas; and

(d) based on the comparison, determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject.

18. A system for analyzing blood vessel attributes, the system comprising:

(a) an atlas of blood vessel anatomy, the atlas including a map of at least one blood vessel attribute developed from in vivo blood vessel image data from a population including a plurality of different individuals, each location in the map indicating a statistical value of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population developed by registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals to a template, wherein the template represents an average of blood vessel image data for the individuals;

(b) an attribute measurement module for obtaining a blood vessel attribute measurement for an individual subject;

(c) an individual subject attribute comparator for comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas, wherein comparing an individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes comparing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the individual to the statistical values at corresponding locations in the atlas; and

(d) an output module for outputting results of the comparison, wherein the results of the comparison indicate a physical characteristic of the individual subject and wherein at least one of the atlas, the attribute measurement module, the comparator, and the output module is embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the at least one blood vessel attribute includes at least one of tortuosity, vascular density, count of terminal branches, blood vessel radius, and ratio of blood vessel volume to tumor volume calculated for the population.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the statistical values in the atlas are computed on a voxel-by-voxel basis for the blood vessel image data from the population.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the statistical value includes a mean and a standard deviation for the blood vessel attribute at each voxel.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the individual subject comparator is adapted to compare the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurement at each voxel in the blood vessel image data with the mean and standard deviation blood vessel image data for each voxel in the atlas.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the individual subject attribute comparator is adapted to output a z score for each voxel, indicating the number of standard deviations that the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute data differs from the corresponding blood vessel attribute data in the atlas.

24. The system of claim 18 wherein the output module is adapted to output an indicator of whether the individual subject has a particular pathology.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the indicator comprises a z-score value.

26. The system of claim 18 wherein the output module is adapted to output a map of z-score values indicating how blood vessel attributes in corresponding regions of the blood vessel image data for the individual subject compare to the blood vessel attribute in the atlas.

27. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that when executed by the processor of a computer perform steps comprising:

(a) developing an atlas including at least one blood vessel attribute from in vivo blood vessel image data from a population including a plurality of different individuals, wherein developing an atlas includes developing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population, each location in the map indicating a statistical value of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the population, wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals to a template, wherein the template represents an average of blood vessel image data for the individuals;

(b) obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements for an individual subject;

(c) comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas, wherein comparing an individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes comparing a map of the at least one blood vessel attribute for the individual to the statistical values at corresponding locations in the atlas; and

(d) based on the comparison, determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject.

28. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals with a template using a rigid transformation.

29. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals with a template using an affine transformation.

30. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals with a template using a fully deformable transformation.

31. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data of the different individuals to a template model using tissue-based registration.

32. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data of the different individuals to a template model using vessel-based registration.

33. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals to a template, wherein the template is based on blood vessel image data for one of the individuals.

34. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein developing an atlas of blood vessel attributes includes registering blood vessel image data for the different individuals to a template, wherein the template represents an average of blood vessel image data for the individuals.

35. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein the blood vessel attributes include three-dimensional blood vessel attributes.

36. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 35 wherein the three-dimensional blood vessel attributes include at least one of tortuosity, density, count of terminal branches, vessel radius, and ratio of vessel volume to tumor volume.

37. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein obtaining blood vessel attribute measurements from an individual subject includes:

(a) obtaining blood vessel image data for the individual subject; and

(b) segmenting the blood vessel image data for the individual subject.

38. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel attribute measurements to the atlas includes registering the segmented blood vessel image data for the subject with the atlas and computing z-score values comparing the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel image data with corresponding data in the atlas.

39. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 38 wherein computing z-score values includes computing voxel-by-voxel z-score values for the individual subject'"'"'s blood vessel image data.

40. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein the population includes randomly-selected individuals.

41. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein the population includes individuals having a particular pathology.

42. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the subject includes determining whether the subject has a particular disease.

43. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes determining whether the individual subject has a tumor.

44. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes identifying the stage of a disease for the individual subject.

45. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 44 wherein identifying a stage of a disease for the individual subject includes identifying a tumor grade for the individual subject.

46. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes evaluating the individual subject'"'"'s response to medical treatment.

47. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes identifying the location of an abnormality in the individual subject.

48. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein determining a physical characteristic of the individual subject includes identifying the location of a functional site in the individual subject'"'"'s brain.

49. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein the individual subject comprises a human subject.

50. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 27 wherein the individual subject includes a non-human subject having a vasculature system.