Anatomy-aware contour editing method and system for implementing said method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12229954-B2
Application number	US-202217953484-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2022
Priority date	Sep 27, 2022
Publication date	Feb 18, 2025
Grant date	Feb 18, 2025

Abstract

An anatomy-aware contouring editing method includes receiving an image, wherein the image represents an anatomically recognizable structure; identifying a first image segment representing part of the anatomically recognizable structure; annotating the first image segment to generate a label of the part; drawing a contour along a boundary of the part; receiving a first input from a user device indicative of a region of contour failure, wherein the region of contour failure includes a portion of a contour that requires editing; editing the contour for generating an edited contour based on the first input and anatomical information; and updating another contour of another part of the anatomically recognizable structure based on the edited contour, wherein the another part is anatomically related to the part.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An anatomy-aware contour editing method comprising:
receiving, by at least one processor, at least one image, wherein the at least one image represents at least one anatomically recognizable structure;
identifying, by the at least one processor, a first image segment representing at least one part of the at least one anatomically recognizable structure;
annotating, by the at least one processor, the first image segment to generate a label of the at least one part;
drawing, by the at least one processor, at least one contour along a boundary of the at least one part;
receiving, by the at least one processor, a first input indicative of a region of contour failure, the first input being provided using a user device, and wherein the region of contour failure includes a portion of a contour that requires editing;
editing, by the at least one processor, the contour for generating an edited contour, based on the first input and anatomical information; and
updating, by the at least one processor, another contour of another part of the at least one anatomically recognizable structure based on the edited contour, wherein the another part is anatomically related to the at least one part.

2. The anatomy-aware contour editing method of claim 1 , wherein editing the contour to generate the edited contour comprises:
receiving, by the at least one processor, a second input indicative of a control point, the second input being provided using a user device, and wherein the control point lies either outside the contour or inside the contour;
receiving, by the at least one processor, a third input indicative of a control radius of a circular region of control that is centered at the control point, the third input being provided using a user device, and wherein the circular region of control includes at least a portion of the region of contour failure;
receiving, by the at least one processor, a fourth input indicative of two farthest points on the contour from the control point, the fourth input being provided using a user device, and wherein the two farthest points lie within the portion of the region of contour failure;
drawing, by the at least one processor, a spline from one of the two farthest points to another of the two farthest points through the control point;
replacing, by the at least one processor, the spline with uniformly sampled spline points; and
generating, by the at least one processor, the edited contour by adjusting the contour to include the uniformly sampled spline points.

3. The anatomy-aware contour editing method of claim 2 , wherein the control point emulates a magnet and the control radius is indicative of a strength of an external magnetic field of the magnet.

4. The anatomy aware contour editing method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one anatomically recognizable structure is a heart and the another part of the heart is at least one of: an epicardium, an endocardium.

5. The anatomy aware contour editing method of claim 4 , wherein updating the another contour of the another part comprises:
identifying, by the at least one processor, a first contour along a boundary of the epicardium and a second contour along a boundary of the endocardium;
comparing, by the at least one processor, the first contour and the second contour with the anatomical information; and
when it is determined, based on the comparison, that a relative arrangement of the first contour and the second contour does not match a reference relative arrangement of the epicardium and the endocardium, adjusting, by the at least one processor, at least one of: the first contour, the second contour, to match the reference relative arrangement.

6. The anatomy-aware contour editing method of claim 4 , wherein the another part of the heart is at least one papillary muscle, and wherein the step of updating the another contour of the another part comprises:
identifying, by the at least one processor, a third contour polygon of a given papillary muscle; and
adjusting, by the at least one processor, a size of the third contour polygon based on a predefined size threshold algorithm.

7. The anatomy-aware contour editing method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one anatomically recognizable structure is a heart and the another part of the heart is at least one of: a right ventricle epicardium, a left ventricle epicardium.

8. The anatomy-aware contour editing method of claim 7 , wherein updating the another contour of the another part comprises:
identifying, by the at least one processor, a first contour polygon of the right ventricle epicardium and the second contour polygon of the left ventricle epicardium, wherein one of the first contour polygon and the second contour polygon overlaps other of the first contour polygon and the second contour polygon;
determining, by the at least one processor, a first point pair which includes a first point in the first contour polygon and a first point in the second contour polygon, said first points being closest to each other;
determining, by the at least one processor, a second point pair by traversing along either the first contour polygon or the second contour polygon, wherein the second point pair includes a second point in the first contour polygon and a second point in the second contour polygon, said second points being closest to each other; and
generating, by the at least one processor, an edited first contour polygon and an edited second contour polygon by adjusting the first contour polygon and the second contour polygon based on the first point pair, the second point pair, and the anatomical information.

9. The anatomy-aware contour editing method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one image is a time-series image, the method further comprising updating at least one succeeding image of the at least one image based on at least one of: the edited contour, the another contour that is updated, wherein the step of updating the at least one succeeding image comprises:
determining, by the at least one processor, at least one of: an affected key point, an affected contour, near the region of contour failure, based on at least one of: the edited contour, the another contour that is updated; and
moving at least one: the affected key point, the affected contour, by a time-based distance in the at least one succeeding image, wherein the time-based distance is a distance that depends on a time interval between the at least one image and the at least one succeeding image.

10. The anatomy-aware contour editing method of claim 9 , wherein the step of updating the at least one succeeding image of the at least one image further comprises copying, by the at least one processor, at least one of: the edited contour, the another contour that is updated, from the at least one image to the at least one succeeding image.

11. The anatomy aware contour editing method of claim 1 , wherein a given input is provided using a user device, the given input being at least one of: a touch input, a click input, a click and drag input, a text input.

12. The anatomy aware contour editing method of claim 1 , further comprising accessing the anatomical information from a data repository where the anatomical information is stored.

13. The anatomy aware contour editing method of claim 12 , wherein the anatomical information comprises at least one of: a dimension, a thickness value, a boundary, a relative size, a predefined size threshold, an arrangement, an anatomical relation of a given part with the at least one part, of the at least one part of the at least one anatomically recognizable structure.

14. A system for im

Assignees

• Shanghai United Imaging Intelligence Co Ltd

Inventors

• Innanje Arun
• Chen Xiao
• Sun Shanhui
• Wei Zhanhong
• Chen Terrence

Classifications

• G06T11/23

  using straight lines or curves · CPC title

• G06T12/10 Primary

  Image preprocessing, e.g. calibration, positioning of sources or scatter correction · CPC title

• G06T2207/30048

  Heart; Cardiac · CPC title

• G06T2207/10088

  Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] · CPC title

• G06T7/0012 Primary

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title