Elasticity measurement with tomographic imaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016000384-A1
Application number	US-201514790209-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 2, 2015
Priority date	Jul 3, 2014
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In a method and apparatus for determining the elasticity of a material of an examination object, which is included in a subarea of an acquired image volume, data from the image volume are acquired with a tomographic imaging method in at least two different time phases during a body movement of the examination object. At least two recorded images are registered with one another. A deformation field of the material included in the subarea of the acquired image volume is determined from the images which are registered with one another. The local elasticity of the material of the image volume included in the subarea of the acquired image volume is determined on the basis of the determined deformation field.

First claim

We claim as our invention:

1 . A method for determining elasticity of a material of an examination object, comprising:
operating a tomographic imaging scanner to acquire images of a volume of an examination object situated in the tomographic imaging scanner, respectively during at least two different time phases of a body movement of the examination object, said volume including material having an elasticity; providing said images to a processor and, in said processor, bringing said images into registration with each other; in said processor, determining a deformation field of said material from said images that are in registration with each other; in said processor, determining a local elasticity of said material from said deformation field; and from said processor, emitting an electronic signal representing said local elasticity at an output of said processor.

2 . A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said body movement is breathing movement.

3 . A method as claimed in claim 2 comprising acquiring one of said images when said examination object is in an exhaled state and acquiring another of said images when said examination object is in an inhalation state.

4 . A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising, in said processor, generating a vector field when said deformation field is determined from said images in registration with each other.

5 . A method as claimed in claim 4 comprising, in said processor, deconstructing said vector field into a deformation portion and a displacement portion, and calculating said deformation field from said deformation portion of said vector field.

6 . A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising bringing said images into registration with each other by executing a registration algorithm in said processor based on a biomedical model for registration.

7 . An elasticity determination apparatus, comprising:
a tomographic imaging scanner; a control computer configured to operate said tomographic imaging scanner to acquire images of a volume of an examination object situated in the tomographic imaging scanner, respectively during at least two different time phases of a body movement of the examination object, said volume including material having an elasticity; said control computer being configured to bring said images into registration with each other; said control computer being configured to determine a deformation field of said material from said images that are in registration with each other; said control computer being configured to determine a local elasticity of said material from said deformation field; and said control computer being configured to emit an electronic signal representing said local elasticity at an output of said control computer.

8 . An elasticity determination apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein said tomographic imaging scanner is a scanner selected from the group consisting of a magnetic resonance scanner, a computed tomography scanner, an ultrasound scanner, and a positron-emission tomography scanner.

9 . A non-transitory, computer-readable data storage medium encoded with programming instructions, said storage medium being loaded into a control computer of a tomographic imaging system, said tomographic imaging system comprising a tomographic imaging scanner, and said programming instructions causing said control computer to:
operate said tomographic imaging scanner to acquire respective images of a volume of an examination object situated in the tomographic imaging scanner, during at least two different time phases of a body movement of the examination object, said volume including material having an elasticity; bring said images into registration with each other; determine a deformation field of said material from said images that are in registration with each other; determine a local elasticity of said material from said deformation field; and emit an electronic signal representing said local elasticity at an output of said control computer.

Assignees

• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Gall Peter
• Kiefer Berthold

Classifications

• A61B8/543

  involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal · CPC title

• A61B6/541

  involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal · CPC title

• G01R33/5673

  Gating or triggering based on a physiological signal other than an MR signal, e.g. ECG gating or motion monitoring using optical systems for monitoring the motion of a fiducial marker · CPC title

• G01R33/56509

  due to motion, displacement or flow, e.g. gradient moment nulling (G01R33/567 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61B5/7292 Primary

  Prospective gating, i.e. predicting the occurrence of a physiological event for use as a synchronisation signal · CPC title