Medical diagnostic imaging apparatus, image processing apparatus, and image generating method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016140707-A1
Application number	US-201514934647-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 6, 2015
Priority date	Nov 14, 2014
Publication date	May 19, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A medical diagnostic imaging apparatus according to embodiments includes storage circuitry and processing circuitry. The storage circuitry stores therein volume data concerning a three-dimensional region inside an object. The processing circuitry calculates an index value concerning a region of interest in the volume data, and generates a first medical image and a second medical image based on the index value. The respective positions in the first medical image and the second medical image are associated with each other by a certain coordinate conversion. The region of interest is divided into a plurality of first regions by a first boundary position. The second medical image is divided into a plurality of second regions by a second boundary position that is not altered in accordance with the alteration of the first boundary position.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A medical diagnostic imaging apparatus comprising:
storage circuitry configured to store therein volume data concerning a three-dimensional region inside an object; and processing circuitry configured to calculate an index value concerning a region of interest in the volume data and generate a first medical image and a second medical image based on the index value, wherein respective positions in the first medical image and the second medical image are associated with each other by a certain coordinate conversion, the region of interest is divided into a plurality of first regions by a first boundary position, and the second medical image is divided into a plurality of second regions by a second boundary position that is not altered in accordance with alteration of the first boundary position.

2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the three-dimensional region includes at least one chamber region out of the left ventricle, the left atrium, the right ventricle, and the right atrium of the heart of the object, the second medical image is a polar map image, and the second region is a section in the polar map image.

3 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the index value is calculated based on a position of each composition point that determines the region of interest.

4 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the volume data is a group of data in time series collected over time concerning the three-dimensional region.

5 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising
a controller configured to cause a display to display the second medical image, wherein the second medical image is an image in which at least one of hue, saturation, and lightness determined based on the index value in each of the first regions is assigned to each of the second regions.

6 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising
a controller configured to cause a display to display the first medical image, wherein the first medical image is an image in which at least one of hue, saturation, and lightness determined based on the index value in each of the first regions is assigned to each of the first regions.

7 . The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the at least one of hue, saturation, and lightness assigned to each of the second regions is determined based on a statistical value by using the index values in each of the first regions.

8 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry
receives an instruction from an operator and alters the first boundary position, causes a display to display a superimposed image in which information on the index value and boundary positions of the first regions are superimposed on an image generated from the volume data by three-dimensional rendering processing or cross-section reconstruction processing, and alters a boundary line of or a vertex of a boundary of a region corresponding to the instruction received from the operator who has referred to the superimposed image.

9 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry determines a first pixel value disposed in a section near the altered first boundary position by interpolation processing using pixel values based on index values disposed around the first pixel value.

10 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry calculates the index value by processing including pattern matching between pieces of three-dimensional medical image data included in obtained volume data for at least one cardiac cycle.

11 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the volume data is a group of ultrasonic image data including a plurality of pieces of three-dimensional ultrasonic image data generated by transmission and reception of ultrasonic waves.

12 . An image processing apparatus comprising:
storage circuitry configured to store therein volume data concerning a three-dimensional region inside an object; and processing circuitry configured to calculate an index value concerning a region of interest in the volume data and generate a first medical image and a second medical image based on the index value, wherein respective positions in the first medical image and the second medical image are associated with each other by a certain coordinate conversion, the region of interest is divided into a plurality of first regions by a first boundary position, and the second medical image is divided into a plurality of second regions by a second boundary position that is not altered in accordance with alteration of the first boundary position.

13 . An image generating method comprising:
calculating an index value concerning a region of interest in volume data concerning a three-dimensional region inside an object; and generating a first medical image and a second medical image based on the index value, wherein respective positions in the first medical image and the second medical image are associated with each other by a certain coordinate conversion, the region of interest is divided into a plurality of first regions by a first boundary position, and the second medical image is divided into a plurality of second regions by a second boundary position that is not altered in accordance with alteration of the first boundary position.

Assignees

• Toshiba Kk
• Toshiba Medical Sys Corp

Inventors

• Abe Yasuhiko
• Okazaki Tomoya

Classifications

• G06V10/25 Primary

  Determination of region of interest [ROI] or a volume of interest [VOI] · CPC title

• G06T15/00

  Three-dimensional [3D] image rendering · CPC title

• G06T11/26

  Drawing of charts or graphs · CPC title

• G06T7/0081

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T2207/20112

  Image segmentation details · CPC title