Systems and methods for molecular breast imaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10517557-B2
Application number	US-201615187077-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2016
Priority date	Jun 20, 2016
Publication date	Dec 31, 2019
Grant date	Dec 31, 2019

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for molecular breast imaging. In one embodiment, a method for nuclear medicine imaging comprises: during an acquisition of emission data from an anatomy of interest, calculating an average counts per pixel in non-target tissue; and responsive to the average counts per pixel reaching a threshold, automatically stopping the acquisition. In this way, an amount of time spent by a patient undergoing an MBI procedure is optimized for the patient.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for nuclear medicine imaging, comprising:
during an acquisition of emission data from an anatomy of interest, calculating an average counts per pixel in non-target tissue; and
responsive to the average counts per pixel reaching a threshold, automatically stopping the acquisition.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the average counts per pixel in non-target tissue comprises calculating the average counts per pixel for pixels corresponding to healthy tissue in the anatomy of interest.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising automatically identifying the pixels corresponding to the healthy tissue by sorting a list of counts per pixel of the emission data.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein automatically identifying the pixels corresponding to the healthy tissue further comprises discarding a bottom percentage and a top percentage of the sorted list, and wherein calculating the average counts per pixel in corresponding to healthy tissue in the anatomy of interest. the non-target area comprises calculating an average of the remaining counts per pixel in the sorted list.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculating is performed after a threshold time elapsing from a start of the acquisition.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating one or more images based on the emission data.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising displaying, via a display device, the one or more images.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold is adjustable by an operator.

9. A nuclear medicine system, comprising:
a detector configured to detect photons emanating from an anatomy of interest;
a computer communicatively coupled to the detector and configured with executable instructions in non-transitory memory that when executed cause the computer to:
during an acquisition of emission data from [[an]]the anatomy of interest, calculate an average counts per pixel in non-target tissue; and
responsive to the average counts per pixel reaching a threshold, automatically stop the acquisition.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein calculating the average counts per pixel in the non-target tissue comprises calculating the average counts per pixel for pixels corresponding to healthy tissue of the anatomy of interest.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the pixels corresponding to the healthy tissue are automatically determined.

12. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a display device communicatively coupled to the computer, wherein the computer is further configured with executable instructions in the non-transitory memory that when executed cause the computer to:
after the acquisition, display, via the display device, an image of the anatomy of interest generated based on the emission data;
receive, via an input device communicatively coupled to the computer, indications of healthy tissue and a lesion within the anatomy of interest;
calculate background, scatter, and attenuation corrections of the image based on the received indications; and
display, via the display device, a background-, scatter-, and attenuation-corrected image generated based on the corrections.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the computer is further configured with executable instructions in the non-transitory memory that when executed cause the computer to automatically calculate absolute activity of the lesion based on the background-, scatter-, and attenuation-corrected image.

14. The system of claim 13 , further comprising an ablation probe, wherein the computer is further configured with executable instructions in the non-transitory memory that when executed cause the computer to perform ablation, via the ablation probe, of the lesion responsive to the absolute activity above a threshold.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Hefetz Yaron
• Wartski Nurit Rivka
• Livshits Pavel
• Sachs Jonathan

Classifications

• A61B18/12

  by passing a current through the tissue to be heated, e.g. high-frequency current · CPC title

• A61B18/02

  by cooling, e.g. cryogenic techniques · CPC title

• G16H50/30

  for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment · CPC title

• A61B6/4258

  for detecting non x-ray radiation, e.g. gamma radiation (A61B6/037 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61B6/5282

  due to scatter · CPC title