Medical image processing apparatus, medical image processing method, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12423819-B2
Application number	US-202217947553-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2022
Priority date	Sep 21, 2021
Publication date	Sep 23, 2025
Grant date	Sep 23, 2025

Abstract

A medical image processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to obtain a medical image. The processing circuitry is configured to calculate a first blood flow direction on the basis of a structure of a region of interest rendered in the medical image. The processing circuitry is configured to calculate a second blood flow direction on the basis of a structure in the surroundings of the region of interest. The processing circuitry is configured to identify a condition of the region of interest, on the basis of the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A medical image processing apparatus, comprising:
processing circuitry configured to
obtain a medical image;
calculate a first blood flow direction based on a structure of a region of interest rendered in the medical image;
calculate a second blood flow direction based on a structure of a region surrounding the region of interest, the region surrounding the region of interest being different from the region of interest;
determine an angle formed between the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction; and
identify information related to a disease risk in the region of interest, based on the determined angle.

2. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine that the larger the angle formed between the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction is, the larger an adverse impact is imposed on a human body by the structure of the region of interest.

3. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
calculate the first blood flow direction with respect to each of a plurality of regions of interest included in the medical image;
calculate the second blood flow direction with respect to a structure of a region surrounding each of the plurality of regions of interest; and
identify information related to the disease risk in each of the regions of interest based on the first blood flow directions and the second blood flow directions, and further identify information related to the disease risk in a region made up of the plurality of regions of interest based on the identified information related to the disease risk with respect to each of the regions of interest.

4. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
obtain a plurality of medical images taken at mutually-different points in time;
calculate the first blood flow direction based on the structure of the region of interest, with respect to each of the medical images corresponding to the mutually-different points in time;
calculate the second blood flow direction based on the structure of the region surrounding the region of interest, with respect to each of the medical images corresponding to the mutually-different points in time; and
calculate the angle formed between the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction with respect to each of the medical images corresponding to the mutually-different points in time, and identify the information related to the disease risk in the region of interest based on the calculated angle with respect to each of the mutually-different points in time.

5. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause a display to display evaluation information based on the information related to the diseased risk in the region of interest.

6. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to change a display mode of the evaluation information based on a degree of the disease risk in the region of interest.

7. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the evaluation information to be displayed over the medical image.

8. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause information indicating the first blood flow direction and information indicating the second blood flow direction to be displayed over the medical image.

9. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to display, in a graph, a relationship between the evaluation information based on the information related to the disease risk in the region of interest identified in each of temporal phases corresponding to the plurality of medical images and the temporal phases.

10. A medical image processing method comprising:
obtaining a medical image;
calculating a first blood flow direction based on a structure of a region of interest rendered in the medical image;
calculating a second blood flow direction based on a structure of a region surrounding the region of interest, the region surrounding the region of interest being different from the region of interest;
determining an angle formed between the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction; and
identifying information related to a disease risk in the region of interest, based on the determined angle.

11. A storage medium storing therein, in a non-transitory manner, a program that causes a computer to execute processes of:
obtaining a medical image;
calculating a first blood flow direction based on a structure of a region of interest rendered in the medical image;
calculating a second blood flow direction based on a structure of a region surrounding the region of interest, the region surrounding the region of interest being different from the region of interest;
determining an angle formed between the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction; and
identifying information related to a disease risk in the region of interest, based on the determined angle.

12. A medical image processing apparatus, comprising:
processing circuitry configured to
obtain a medical image;
calculate a first blood flow direction based on a structure of a region of interest rendered in the medical image;
calculate a second blood flow direction based on a structure in a surrounding of the region of interest;
determine an angle formed between the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction; and
identify that the larger the determined angle is, the larger an impact is imposed on a human body by the structure of the region of interest or the structure in a surrounding of the region of interest.

13. A medical image processing method, comprising:
obtaining a medical image;
calculating a first blood flow direction based on a structure of a region of interest rendered in the medical image;
calculating a second blood flow direction based on a structure in a surrounding of the region of interest;
determining an angle formed between the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction; and
identifying that the larger the determined angle is, the larger an impact is imposed on a human body by the structure of the region of interest or the structure in a surrounding of the region of interest.

14. A storage medium storing therein, in a non-transitory manner, a program that causes a computer to execute processes of:
obtaining a medical image;
calculating a first blood flow direction based on a structure of a region of interest rendered in the medical image;
calculating a second blood flow direction based on a structure in a surrounding of the region of interest;
determining an angle formed between the first blood flow direction and the second blood flow direction; and
identifying that the larger the determined angle is, the larger an impact is imposed on a human body by the structure of the region of interest or the structure in a surrounding of the region of interest.

Assignees

• Univ Tokyo
• Canon Medical Systems Corp

Inventors

• Aoyama Gakuto
• Sakuma Ichiro
• Ono Minoru
• Takagi Shu
• Hatano Asuka
• Yamauchi Haruo
• Maeda Eriko
• Tomii Naoki
• Tsukihara Hiroyuki

Classifications

• A61B6/507

  for determination of haemodynamic parameters, e.g. perfusion CT · 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

• G06T7/0016 Primary

  involving temporal comparison · CPC title

• A61B8/06 Primary

  Measuring blood flow · CPC title