Imaging apparatus for diagnosis, method of controlling the same, program, and computer readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10646174-B2
Application number	US-201514865532-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2015
Priority date	Apr 5, 2013
Publication date	May 12, 2020
Grant date	May 12, 2020

Abstract

An imaging apparatus and method for diagnosis acquiring information of an inside of a blood vessel and reconstructing a vascular image are disclosed, wherein when acquiring data through a rotation position and a movement of an imaging core, X-ray images at a fixed viewpoint position are synchronized so as to be continuously input along a time axis. Then, timing when vascular activity such as a cardiac beat can occur is determined based on the X-ray images. A plurality of vascular cross-sectional images on a plane orthogonal to a vascular axis acquired through the rotation and the movement of the imaging core are acquired. Then, a vascular image along the vascular axis is generated from the vascular cross-sectional image or the vascular cross-sectional images in series, and when performing a display, a site having vascular activity is displayed in a discriminable manner.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imaging apparatus for diagnosis acquiring information of an inside of a blood vessel and reconstructing a vascular image, the imaging apparatus comprising:
an imaging core configured to emit light or ultrasound toward a lumen surface of a blood vessel of an examinee and to detect reflection of the light or ultrasound;
a probe configured to accommodate the imaging core;
a motor configured to rotate the imaging core and to move the imaging core along the probe at a predetermined velocity;
an X-ray imaging device configured to continuously acquire X-ray images of the examinee along a time axis while acquiring the information of the inside of the blood vessel by performing the rotation and the movement of the imaging core;
a processor configured to:
specify a vascular-activity occurrence X-ray image based on a degree of correlation of an adjacent X-ray image with respect to the time axis of the X-ray images acquired by the X-ray imaging device;
determine a corresponding position of the moving imaging core for imaging timing of the vascular-activity occurrence X-ray image; and
generate an axially-directed cross-sectional image along the vascular axis based on the information acquired through the rotation and the movement of the imaging core; and

a display configured to display a composite result of the axially-directed generated cross-sectional image and an image showing the corresponding position of the moving imaging core for imaging timing of the vascular-activity occurrence X-ray image.

2. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
generate an instruction regarding a position in a vascular axis direction in the axially-directed cross-sectional image which is displayed by the display; and
wherein the display is configured to display a vascular cross-sectional image on a plane orthogonal to a vascular axis at the position in the vascular axis direction, and the vascular-activity occurrence X-ray image acquired at timing when the imaging core is positioned at the position in the vascular axis direction.

3. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to:
determine whether or not the timing when the imaging core is positioned at the position in the vascular axis direction is vascular-activity occurrence timing; and
switch a display form of a radially-directed cross-sectional image in accordance with a determination result of whether or not the imaging core is positioned at the position in the vascular axis direction is the vascular-activity occurrence timing.

4. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 3 , wherein the processor is configured to:
switch any one of a frame color, an index color, and a background color for displaying the radially-directed cross-sectional image, based on the timing when the imaging core is positioned at the position in the vascular axis direction is the vascular-activity occurrence timing.

5. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 1 , wherein when Fx (i) represents an ith target X-ray image in imaged sequence and Fx (i, x, y) represent pixel values of coordinates (x, y) in a target X-ray image, the processor is configured to compute the following expression to obtain dissimilarity between the target X-ray image and an X-ray image immediately before the target X-ray image:
D (i)=ΣΣ{Fx (i, x, y)−Fx (i−1, x, y)} 2 , ΣΣ represents a sum total of computation results for all the coordinates; and
when dissimilarity D (i) and a threshold value Th set in advance are compared to each other resulting in a relationship of D (i)>Th, it is determined that the vascular activity occurs in the target X-ray image Fx (i).

6. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
generate a display excluding a vascular-activity occurrence site on the display; and
delete an image at the position determined from axially-directed cross-sectional images, and display truncated images after deletion of the image.

7. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
generate an image mark displayed at the vascular-activity occurrence site in the axial direction of the axially-directed cross-sectional image.

8. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 7 , wherein the image mark shows a degree of magnitude of activity to be displayed at the vascular-activity occurrence site in the axial direction of the axially-directed cross-sectional image.

9. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to:
generate a vascular-activity occurrence region in the axial direction of the axially-directed cross-sectional image, and wherein the vascular-activity occurrence region is displayed in color or a density different from the color or a density of a region having no vascular-activity occurrence.

10. The imaging apparatus for diagnosis according to claim 1 , wherein the X-ray imaging device is configured to acquire the X-ray images of a heart of the examinee in real time.

11. A method of controlling an imaging apparatus for diagnosis acquiring information of an inside of a blood vessel and reconstructing a vascular image by using an imaging core configured to emit light or ultrasound toward a lumen surface of a blood vessel and to detect reflection of the light or ultrasound, a probe configured to accommodate the imaging core, and a motor configured to rotate the imaging core and to move the imaging core along the probe at a predetermined velocity, the method comprising:
continuously acquiring X-ray images of the examinee along a time axis while acquiring the information of the inside of the blood vessel by performing the rotation and the movement of the imaging core;
specifying a vascular-activity occurrence X-ray image based on a degree of correlation of an adjacent X-ray image with respect to the time axis of the X-ray vascular-activity occurrence image which is acquired by the X-ray image acquisition step;
determining a corresponding position of the moving imaging core for imaging timing of the vascular-activity occurrence X-ray image which is specified by the specification step;
generating the axially-directed cross-sectional image along the vascular axis based on the information acquired through the rotation and the movement of the imaging core; and
displaying a composite result of the axially-directed cross-sectional image which is generated by the generation step and an image which shows the corresponding position determined by the determination step on a display of the moving imaging core for imaging timing of the vascular-activity occurrence X-ray image.

12. The method according to claim 11 , comprising:
generating an instruction regarding a position in a vascular axis direction in the axially-directed cross-sectional image which is displayed by the display, and
displaying a vascular cross-sectional image on a plane orthogonal to a vascular axis at the position in the vascular axis direction, and the vascular-activity occurrence X-ray image acquired at timing when the imaging core is positioned at the position in the vascular axis direction.

13. The method according to claim 12 , comprising:
determining whether or not the timing when the imaging core is positioned at the position in the vascular axis direction is vascular-activity occurrence timing; and
switching a display form of a radially-directed cross-sectional image in accordance with a determination result of whether or not the imaging core is positione

Assignees

• Terumo Corp

Inventors

• Inoue Kouichi
• Furuichi Junya
• Etou Hijiri

Classifications

• A61B5/7246

  using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity · CPC title

• A61B6/5217

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

• A61B6/5247

  combining images from an ionising-radiation diagnostic technique and a non-ionising radiation diagnostic technique, e.g. X-ray and ultrasound · CPC title

• A61B6/486

  involving generating temporal series of image data · CPC title

• A61B5/0035

  adapted for acquisition of images from more than one imaging mode, e.g. combining MRI and optical tomography · CPC title