Medical diagnostic apparatus, method for operating medical diagnostic apparatus, and computer-readable recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016278743-A1
Application number	US-201615180569-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 13, 2016
Priority date	Jun 11, 2014
Publication date	Sep 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A medical diagnostic apparatus includes: a feature calculating unit configured to calculate a plurality of kinds of features that is based on luminance information or frequency spectrum information obtained from a received signal from a specimen, and that relates to attributes of a tissue of the specimen; a classification unit configured to: classify the attributes of the tissue of the specimen by using a feature determined among the plurality of kinds of features calculated by the feature calculating unit according to a classification item selected in advance from a plurality of classification items assigned for each classification purpose; and assign visual information according to a classification result to pixels of an image based on the received signal; and a feature image data generating unit configured to generate feature image data on which the visual information assigned to the pixels of the image based on the received signal is superimposed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A medical diagnostic apparatus comprising:
a feature calculating unit configured to calculate a plurality of kinds of features that is based on luminance information or frequency spectrum information obtained from a received signal from a specimen, and that relates to attributes of a tissue of the specimen; a classification unit configured to:
classify the attributes of the tissue of the specimen by using a feature determined among the plurality of kinds of features calculated by the feature calculating unit according to a classification item selected in advance from a plurality of classification items assigned for each classification purpose; and
assign visual information according to a classification result to pixels of an image based on the received signal; and
a feature image data generating unit configured to generate feature image data on which the visual information assigned to the pixels of the image based on the received signal is superimposed.

2 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a classification information storage unit configured to store classification information including at least one of an attribute of a tissue to be classified corresponding to the classification item, a kind of a feature used for classification, and information associating visual information according to a value of the feature,
wherein the classification unit is configured to perform classification and assignment of the visual information by referring to the classification information storage unit.

3 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a known specimen information storage unit configured to store known specimen information including at least one of a received signal from a specimen whose attribute is known and information calculated based on the received signal such that the known specimen information is associated with the attribute; and a classification information setting unit configured to set the classification information by using the known specimen information stored in the known specimen information storage unit.

4 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the feature calculating unit is configured to extract a plurality of parameters based on the received signal from a predetermined area of the specimen, and to calculate the features by using the plurality of parameters.

5 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the feature calculating unit is configured to calculate, as the features, a statistic of parameters of same type among the plurality of parameters.

6 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the visual information is a variable constituting a color space.

7 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the visual information is luminance.

8 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a display unit configured to display a feature image corresponding to the feature image data generated by the feature image data generating unit.

9 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an input unit configured to receive an input for selecting the classification item.

10 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an ultrasound probe configured to transmit an ultrasound wave to the specimen and to receive, as the received signal, an electric echo signal acquired by converting an ultrasound echo reflected from the specimen.

11 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 10 , further comprising a frequency analyzing unit configured to analyze a frequency of the echo signal to calculate a frequency spectrum,
wherein the feature calculating unit is configured to calculate the plurality of kinds of features by using the frequency spectrum.

12 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the feature calculating unit is configured to calculate, as the plurality of kinds of features, texture features obtained by a texture analysis from luminance of each of the pixels of the image based on the received signal.

13 . The medical diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a frequency analyzing unit configured to analyze a frequency of the received signal to calculate a frequency spectrum,
wherein the feature calculating unit comprises an approximation unit configured to:
approximate, by a linear expression, the frequency spectrum calculated by the frequency analyzing unit; and
extract, as the plurality of kinds of features, at least one of a slope of the linear expression, an intercept of the linear expression, and an intensity defined by using the slope, the intercept, and a specific frequency in a frequency band of the frequency spectrum.

14 . A method for operating a medical diagnostic apparatus that generates diagnostic image data based on a received signal from a specimen, the method comprising:
calculating, by a feature calculating unit, a plurality of kinds of features in luminance information or frequency spectrum information obtained from the received signal; by a classification unit, classifying attributes of a tissue of the specimen by using a feature determined among the plurality of kinds of features according to a classification item selected in advance from a plurality of classification items assigned for each classification purpose, and assigning visual information according to a classification result to pixels of an image based on the received signal; and generating, by a feature image data generating unit, feature image data on which the visual information assigned to the pixels of the image based on the received signal is superimposed.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium with an executable program stored thereon, the program instructing a medical diagnostic apparatus that generates diagnostic image data based on a received signal from a specimen, to execute:
calculating, by a feature calculating unit, a plurality of kinds of features in luminance information or frequency spectrum information obtained from the received signal; by a classification unit, classifying attributes of a tissue of the specimen by using a feature determined among the plurality of kinds of features according to a classification item selected in advance from a plurality of classification items assigned for each classification purpose, and assigning visual information according to a classification result to pixels of an image based on the received signal; and generating, by a feature image data generating unit, feature image data on which the visual information assigned to the pixels of the image based on the received signal is superimposed.

Assignees

• Olympus Corp

Inventors

• Kawashima Tomonao

Classifications

• G06V10/764

  using classification, e.g. of video objects · CPC title

• G06F18/24

  Classification techniques · CPC title

• A61B8/085

  for locating body or organic structures, e.g. tumours, calculi, blood vessels, nodules · CPC title

• A61B8/4444

  related to the probe · CPC title

• A61B8/467

  characterised by special input means · CPC title