Intuitive automation in patient modeling

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10600514-B2
Application number	US-201715596923-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2017
Priority date	May 27, 2016
Publication date	Mar 24, 2020
Grant date	Mar 24, 2020

Abstract

To overcome the difficulties inherent in conventional treatment planning approaches, new techniques are described herein for providing an intuitive user interface for automatic structure derivation in patient modeling. In an embodiment, a graphical user interface is provided that provides a list of structures of a specified region. The interface uses medical terminology instead of mathematical one. In one or more embodiments, the list of structures may be a pre-defined list of structures that correspond to that region for the purposes of treatment planning. A user is able to actuate a toggle to include and/or exclude each of the structures separately. In one or more embodiments, the user is also able to actuate a toggle to define a perimeter around each included structure, and further define a margin around the perimeter. The user is also able to specify whether the desired output should include a union or the intersection of all included structures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of automatic structure delineation, the method comprising:
causing display, by a computer system, of an image from medical image data;
causing display, by the computer system, of a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface comprising a list of structures corresponding to an area of interest displayed in the image and one or more operations available to be performed;
receiving user supplied input through the graphical user interface, the user supplied input corresponding to a selection of structures from the list of structures;
determining and performing a Boolean operation based on the user supplied input, wherein the Boolean operation comprises a union of or an intersection of each structure of the selection of structures indicated by the user supplied input for inclusion in the Boolean operation;
generating a graphical delineation of the structures resulting from the Boolean operation;
storing the graphical delineation as one or more corresponding output structures; and
updating the display to include the graphical delineation of the one or more output structures.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the list of structures comprises a pre-determined list of structures determined to be clinically relevant by analyzing clinical data corresponding to the area of interest.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the user supplied input comprises actuation of a toggle in the graphical user interface to include the selection of structures.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the user supplied input further comprises actuation of a toggle in the graphical user interface to define a wall of a structure of the selection of structures.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising analyzing clinically relevant data corresponding to the area of interest to reference one or more surface contours corresponding to the structure, wherein the wall of the structure is defined using the one or more surface contours corresponding to the structure.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the user supplied input further comprises actuation of a set of parameters displayed in the graphical user interface that correspond to a margin around the wall.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring subsequent user supplied input to detect a modification to a structure of the selection of structures;
automatically propagating the graphical delineation to correspond to the modification; and
updating the display to include the modification.

8. The method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the user supplied input comprises at least one of: selection of a structure in the list of structures, and deselection of a structure in the list of structures,
wherein the selection of a structure comprises a display of a union of the selected structure and the selection of structures,
further wherein the deselection of a structure comprises a display that does not include the deselected structure.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface displays the list of structures and the one or more operations in a tabular representation.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising referencing the one or more output structures in a patient modeling workspace.

11. A system comprising:
a memory device configured to store a set of programmed instructions and image data;
a user input device configured to receive user supplied input;
a display device configured to display a graphical user interface; and
a processor configured to execute the programmed instructions to generate a display of the graphical user interface comprising a display of an image corresponding to the image data and a display of a list of structures corresponding to an area of interest in the image and one or more operations available to be performed, the processor being further configured to receive user supplied input from the user input device corresponding to a selection of structures from the list of structures, to determine and perform a Boolean operation based on the user supplied input, wherein the Boolean operation comprises a union of or an intersection of each structure of the selection of structures indicated by the user supplied input for inclusion in the Boolean operation, to generate a graphical delineation of the structures resulting from the Boolean operation, to store the graphical delineation as one or more corresponding output structures, and to update the image to include the graphical delineation in the display.

12. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the list of structures comprises a pre-determined list of structures determined to be clinically relevant by analyzing clinical data corresponding to the area of interest.

13. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the user supplied input comprises actuation of a toggle displayed in the graphical user interface to include the selection of structures.

14. The system according to claim 13 , wherein the user supplied input further comprises actuation of a toggle displayed in the graphical user interface to define a perimeter around the selection of structures.

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the user supplied input further comprises actuation of a set of parameters displayed in the graphical user interface that correspond to a margin around the perimeter.

16. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the processor is further operable to monitor subsequently received user supplied input to detect a modification to a structure of the selection of structures, automatically propagate the graphical delineation to correspond to the modification; and update the image to include the modification.

17. The system according to claim 11 ,
wherein the user supplied input comprises at least one of: selection of a structure in the list of structures, and deselection of a structure in the list of structures,
wherein the selection of a structure comprises a display of a union of the selected structure and the selection of structures,
further wherein the deselection of a structure comprises a display that does not include the deselected structure.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a plurality of programmed instructions which, when executed by a processor in a computing system, is operable to implement automatic structure delineation, the computer readable medium comprising:
instructions to cause display of an image from medical image data;
instructions to cause display of a graphical user interface comprising a list of structures corresponding to an area of interest displayed in the image and one or more operations available to be performed;
instructions to receive, as input, user supplied input corresponding to a selection of structures from the list of structures;
instructions to determine and perform a Boolean operation based on the user supplied input, wherein the Boolean operation comprises a union of or an intersection of each structure of the selection of structures indicated by the user supplied input for inclusion in the Boolean operation;
instructions to generate a graphical delineation of the structures resulting from the Boolean operation;
instructions to store the graphical delineation as one or more corresponding output structures; and
instructions to update the image with the graphical delineation of the selected structures.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 18 , wherein the list of structures comprises a pr

Assignees

• Varian Medical Systems Int Ag
• Varian Med Sys Inc

Inventors

• Haas Benjamin M
• Coradi Thomas
• MORGAS Tomasz

Classifications

• G06T7/149

  involving deformable models, e.g. active contour models · CPC title

• G06T2200/24

  involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs] · CPC title

• G16H40/63 Primary

  for local operation · CPC title

• A61N2005/1074

  Details of the control system, e.g. user interfaces · CPC title

• G06T7/11

  Region-based segmentation · CPC title