Medical image processing apparatus, system, and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11694330-B2
Application number	US-202117349435-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 16, 2021
Priority date	Jul 13, 2020
Publication date	Jul 4, 2023
Grant date	Jul 4, 2023

Abstract

A medical image processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to extract a degree of a disease related to the heart from a medical image; and display, when the degree of the disease related to the heart is high, a first index value related to a blood vessel and calculated from one of blood pressure and a blood flow and configured to display, when the degree of the disease related to the heart is low, wall shear stress serving as a second index value related to the blood vessel, as information related to the blood flow of the blood vessel and calculated on the basis of the medical image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A medical image processing apparatus, comprising:
processing circuitry configured to
extract a degree of a disease related to a heart from a medical image; and
display, when the degree of the disease related to the heart is high, a first index value related to a blood vessel and calculated from one of blood pressure and a blood flow, and display, when the degree of the disease related to the heart is low, wall shear stress serving as a second index value related to the blood vessel, as information related to the blood flow of the blood vessel and calculated based on the medical image, wherein the first index value is an index value of a different type from the wall shear stress serving as the second index value.

2. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
display, when a disease degree indicating the degree of the disease related to the heart is higher than a first threshold value, the first index value;
display, when the disease degree indicating the degree of the disease related to the heart is lower than a second threshold value smaller than the first threshold value, the second index value; and
display, when the disease degree indicating the degree of the disease related to the heart falls between the first threshold value and the second threshold value, the first index value and the second index value.

3. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
display, when the disease degree indicating the degree of the disease related to the heart is high, one or both of the first index value being one-dimensional and the second index value being one-dimensional; and
display, when the disease degree indicating the degree of the disease related to the heart is low, one or both of the first index value being three-dimensional and the second index value being three-dimensional.

4. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
simultaneously display the first index value and the second index value;
make, when the disease degree indicating the degree of the disease related to the heart is high, a display region of the first index value larger than a display region of the second index value; and
make, when the disease degree indicating the degree of the disease related to the heart is low, the display region of the second index value larger than the display region of the first index value.

5. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to display the first index value and the second index value in mutually-different display modes.

6. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to display an image indicating the blood vessel, and display, within the image, the first index value and the second index value arranged on top of each other or side by side.

7. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
receive, from a user, an operation to select a type of information to be displayed; and
display one or both of the first index value and the second index value in accordance with the received operation.

8. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
receive, from the user, an operation to switch display between the first index value and the second index value; and
switch from a state in which one of the first index value and the second index value is displayed into a state in which the other is displayed in accordance with the received operation.

9. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
identify whether a time at which the medical image was taken was before a subject was treated or after the subject was treated;
calculate, when the time at which the medical image was taken is identified as before the subject was treated, one or both of a first predicted index value being the first index value after the treatment and a second predicted index value being the second index value after the treatment, by applying virtual treatment to the blood vessel while using the medical image; and
display, when the time at which the medical image was taken is identified as before the subject was treated, one or both of the first predicted index value and the second predicted index value.

10. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
display, when the time at which the medical image was taken is identified as before the subject was treated, one or both of the first index value and the second index value calculated based on the medical image and one or both of the first predicted index value and the second predicted index value; and
display, when the time at which the medical image was taken is identified as after the subject was treated, one or both of the first index value and the second index value calculated based on the medical image.

11. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
display, when the time at which the medical image was taken is identified as before the subject was treated, one or both of the first index value being three-dimensional and the second index value being three-dimensional; and
display, when the time at which the medical image was taken is identified as after the subject was treated, one or both of the first index value being one-dimensional and the second index value being one-dimensional.

12. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to calculate, after determining to display one or both of the first predicted index value and the second predicted index value, the one or both of the first predicted index value and the second predicted index value.

13. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
receive, from the user, an operation to input a parameter used at a time of applying the virtual treatment; and
calculate one or both of the first predicted index value and the second predicted index value by using the received parameter.

14. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to display, when the time at which the medical image was taken is identified as after the subject was treated, one or both of the first index value and the second index value calculated based on the medical image before the treatment and one or both of the first index value and the second index value calculated based on the medical image after the treatment.

15. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
derive, with respect to each of blood vessel branches of a coronary artery, a position and a rupture probability of plaque occurring at the blood vessel branch, based on the medical image; and
display, with respect to each of the blood vessel branches, one of the first index value and the second index value in accordance with the position and the rupture probability of the plaque.

16. The medical image processing apparatus ac

Assignees

• Canon Medical Systems Corp

Inventors

• Aoyama Gakuto

Classifications

• A61B6/503

  for diagnosis of the heart · CPC title

• A61B6/5217

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

• G06T2207/30104

  Vascular flow; Blood flow; Perfusion · CPC title

• G06T11/00

  Two-dimensional [2D] image generation · CPC title

• G06T7/0012 Primary

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title