Apparatus and method for processing a medical image of a body lumen

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10098602-B2
Application number	US-201414550164-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 21, 2014
Priority date	Nov 21, 2013
Publication date	Oct 16, 2018
Grant date	Oct 16, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus includes an image analysis unit arranged to extract, from the medical image, brightness intensities of a first body lumen region of the medical image and brightness intensities of a second body lumen region of the medical image; and a measuring unit arranged to calculate a first body lumen value and a second body lumen value, each of the first body lumen value and a second body lumen value being calculated as a predetermined linear combination of the brightness intensities of the corresponding first body lumen region and second body lumen region, and to compare the first body lumen value with the second body lumen value.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for processing a medical image of a body lumen, the apparatus comprising:
an image processor configured to:
extract, from the medical image, brightness intensities corresponding to pixel values in a normal body lumen region of the medical image, the normal body lumen region being an image area on a first cross section substantially perpendicular to a center line of the body lumen,
extract brightness intensities corresponding to pixel values in a stenosis body lumen region of the medical image, the stenosis body lumen region being an image area on a second cross section which is different from the first cross section and substantially perpendicular to the center line of the body lumen,
calculate a first sum of the brightness intensities of the pixel values of the image area of the first cross section,
calculate a second sum of the brightness intensities of the pixel values of the image area of the second cross section, and
generate a measure of a degree of stenosis of the body lumen as a ratio, by dividing the second sum by the first sum, or as a difference between the first sum and the second sum, without calculating a size of an area of the stenosis body lumen region.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image processor is further configured to extract the center line of the body lumen from the medical image,
the normal body lumen region is substantially perpendicular to the center line of the body lumen at a first position along the center line, and
the stenosis body lumen region is substantially perpendicular to the center line at a second position along the center line, different from the first position.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the medical image is a three-dimensional (3D) medical image, and
the image processor is further configured to extract, from the 3D medical image, a projection image by projecting the medical image on a plane having a normal substantially perpendicular to the center line of the body lumen, and to extract the brightness intensities of the normal body lumen region and the stenosis body lumen region from the projection image.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the medical image is a two-dimensional (2D) medical image corresponding to a projection image of the body lumen in a plane having a normal substantially perpendicular to the center line of the body lumen, and
the image processor is further configured to extract the brightness intensities of the normal body lumen region and the stenosis body lumen region from the projection image.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the medical image is a three-dimensional (3D) medical image, and
the image processor is further configured to extract, from the 3D medical image, an image of the first cross section of the body lumen in a plane substantially perpendicular to the center line at the first position and an image of the second cross section of the body lumen in a plane substantially perpendicular to the center line at the second position, and to extract the brightness intensities of the normal body lumen region from the image of said first cross section and extract the brightness intensities of the stenosis body lumen region from the image of said second cross section.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a user input unit configured to receive an input of the normal body lumen region and the stenosis body lumen region from a user.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image processor is further configured to identify a diameter of the body lumen based on the medical image and to extract the normal body lumen region and the stenosis body lumen region based on a change in the diameter of the body lumen.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the medical image is a computed tomography (CT) image obtained by a multi-energy CT image capturing after injection of contrast media.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the body lumen is a blood vessel.

10. A method of processing a medical image of a body lumen by using a medical image apparatus, the method comprising:
performing, by an image processor of the medical image apparatus, operations of:
extracting, from the medical image, brightness intensities corresponding to pixel values in a normal body lumen region of the medical image, the normal body lumen region being an image area on a first cross section substantially perpendicular to a center line of the body lumen;
extracting, from the medical image, brightness intensities corresponding to pixel values in a stenosis body lumen region of the medical image, the stenosis body lumen region being an image area on a second cross section which is different from the first cross section and substantially perpendicular to the center line of the body lumen;
calculating a first sum of the brightness intensities of the pixel values of the image area of the first cross section;
calculating a second sum of the brightness intensities of the pixel values of the image area of the second cross section; and
generating a measure of a degree of stenosis of the body lumen as a ratio of the second sum to the first sum or as a difference between the first sum and the second sum, the ratio is being calculated by dividing the second sum by the first sum, the ratio is being calculated by dividing the second sum by the first sum, without calculating a size of an area of the stenosis body region.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
performing, by the image processor, an operation of extracting the center line of the body lumen from an area of the body lumen,
wherein the normal body lumen region is substantially perpendicular to the center line of the body lumen at a first position along the center line, and
the stenosis body lumen region is substantially perpendicular to the center line at a second position along the center line, different from the first position.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the medical image is a three-dimensional (3D) medical image, and the method further comprises:
performing, by the image processor, operations of:
extracting, from the 3D medical image a projection image by projecting the medical image on a plane having a normal substantially perpendicular to the center line of the body lumen; and
extracting, the brightness intensities of the normal body lumen region and the stenosis body lumen region from the projection image.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the medical image is a two-dimensional (2D) medical image corresponding to a projection image of the body lumen in a plane having a normal substantially perpendicular to the center line of the body lumen, and
the method further comprises performing, by the image processor, an operation of extracting the brightness intensities of the normal body lumen region and the stenosis body lumen region from the projection image.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the medical image is a three-dimensional (3D) medical image, and the method further comprises:
performing, by the image processor, operations of:
extracting, from the 3D medical image, an image of the first cross section of the body lumen in a plane substantially perpendicular to the center line at the first position;
extracting, an image of the second cross section of the body lumen in a plane substantially perpendicular to the center line at the second position; and
extracting, the brightness intensities of the pixel values in the normal body lumen region from the image of said first cross section and extracting the brightness intensities of the stenosis body lumen region from the image of said second cross section.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Duhgoon
• Rifu Toshihiro

Classifications

• A61B6/504

  for diagnosis of blood vessels, e.g. by angiography · CPC title

• A61B6/037 Primary

  Emission tomography · CPC title

• A61B6/5217 Primary

  extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data · CPC title

• G06T2207/10081

  Computed x-ray tomography [CT] · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title