Medical image processing apparatus and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016275653-A1
Application number	US-201514661456-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 18, 2015
Priority date	Mar 18, 2015
Publication date	Sep 22, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A medical image processing apparatus comprises smoothing circuitry that receives a volumetric medical image data set corresponding to a 3D region of a subject and smooths the volumetric medical image data set to generate a smoothed medical image data set, wherein at least one part of the surface of a structure is represented in the volumetric medical image data set, rendering circuitry that produces a 2D rendered data set from the smoothed medical image data set, curvature calculation circuitry that calculates a respective curvature at each of a plurality of positions on the at least one part of the surface of the structure and smooths the calculated curvatures to obtain smoothed calculated curvatures, and shading addition circuitry that adds shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the smoothed calculated curvatures.

First claim

1 . A medical image processing apparatus comprising:
smoothing circuitry that receives a volumetric medical image data set corresponding to a 3D region of a subject and smooths the volumetric medical image data set to generate a smoothed medical image data set, wherein at least one part of the surface of a structure is represented in the volumetric medical image data set and in the smoothed medical image data set; rendering circuitry that produces a 2D rendered data set from the smoothed medical image data set; curvature calculation circuitry that calculates a respective curvature at each of a plurality of positions on the at least one part of the surface of the structure and smooths the calculated curvatures to obtain smoothed calculated curvatures, wherein the calculating of the curvature is based on at least one of the volumetric medical image data set and the smoothed medical image data set; and shading addition circuitry that adds shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the smoothed calculated curvatures.

2 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the smoothing of the calculated curvatures by the curvature calculation circuitry comprises an edge-preserving smoothing process.

3 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the smoothing of the volumetric medical image data set by the smoothing circuitry comprises at least one of a curvature-based smoothing process and a feature-preserving smoothing process.

4 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of positions comprises incident points of a plurality of rays on the surface of the structure.

5 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the structure comprises at least part of a fetal head, fetal foot or fetal hand.

6 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of:
the shading addition circuitry is configured to add the shading to the 2D rendered image data set so as to emphasize facial features; the shading that is added to the 2D rendered image data set by the shading addition circuitry emphasizes at least one of a valley or a ridge on the surface of the structure.

7 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising display control circuitry that causes display of the shaded 2D rendered data set on a display screen.

8 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the curvatures that are calculated by the curvature calculation circuitry comprise curvatures of the surface in 3D.

9 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating of a respective curvature at each of the plurality of positions comprises calculating a change of a normal vector at each of the plurality of positions.

10 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculated curvatures comprise minimum principal curvatures and the adding of the shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the smoothed calculated curvatures comprises adding shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the minimum principal curvatures.

11 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculated curvatures comprise maximum principal curvatures and the adding of the shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the smoothed calculated curvatures comprises adding shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the maximum principal curvatures.

12 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein each curvature that is calculated by the curvature calculation circuitry comprises at least one of: a minimum principal curvature, a maximum principal curvature, a mean curvature, a Gaussian curvature.

13 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the smoothing of the volumetric image data set by the smoothing circuitry in order to generate the smoothed medical image data set comprises smoothing said at least one part of the surface of the structure.

14 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the 2D rendered data set comprises a plurality of pixels, and the adding of the shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the smoothed calculated curvatures comprises
for each pixel, compositing the smoothed calculated curvature value for that pixel with at least one of a color value or greyscale value for that pixel.

15 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the smoothing circuitry is configured to generate the smoothed medical image data set by performing a feature-preserving smoothing process on the volumetric medical image data set.

16 . A medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the volumetric medical image data set comprises at least one of ultrasound data, CT data, MR data, PET data, SPECT data.

17 . A medical diagnostic apparatus comprising:
a scanner configured to generate a volumetric medical image data set corresponding to a 3D region of a subject; a data store configured to store volumetric medical image data; a display screen configured to display medical images; smoothing circuitry configured to receive the volumetric medical imaging data set and to smooth the volumetric medical image data set to generate a smoothed medical image data set, wherein at least one part of the surface of a structure is represented in the volumetric medical image data set and in the smoothed medical image data set; rendering circuitry configured to produce a 2D rendered data set from the smoothed medical image data set; curvature calculation circuitry configured to calculate a respective curvature at each of a plurality of positions on the at least one part of the surface of the structure and to smooth the calculated curvatures to obtain smoothed calculated curvatures, wherein the calculating of the curvature is based on at least one of the volumetric medical image data set and the smoothed medical image data set; shading addition circuitry configured to add shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the smoothed calculated curvatures; and display control circuitry configured to cause the display of the shaded 2D rendered data set on the display screen.

18 . A medical imaging method comprising:
receiving a volumetric medical image data set corresponding to a 3D region of a subject; smoothing the volumetric medical image data set to generate a smoothed medical image data set, wherein at least one part of the surface of a structure is represented in the volumetric medical image data set and in the smoothed medical image data set; producing a 2D rendered data set from the smoothed medical image data set; calculating a respective curvature at each of a plurality of positions on the at least one part of the surface of the structure wherein the calculating of the curvature is based on at least one of the volumetric medical image data set and the smoothed medical image data set;
smoothing the calculated curvatures to obtain smoothed calculated curvatures; and
adding shading to the 2D rendered data set in dependence on the smoothed calculated curvatures.

19 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program comprising computer-readable instructions that are executable to perform a method comprising:
receiving a volumetric medical image data set corresponding to a 3D region of a subject; smoothing the volumetr

Assignees

• Toshiba Kk
• Toshiba Medical Sys Corp

Inventors

• Ross Paul Spencer
• Day Timothy
• Davey Robert

Classifications

• G06T2207/20192

  Edge enhancement; Edge preservation · CPC title

• G06T2207/10136

  3D ultrasound image · CPC title

• G06T2207/30044

  Fetus; Embryo · CPC title

• G06T15/08

  Volume rendering · CPC title

• G06T2200/04

  involving 3D image data · CPC title