Medical image registration apparatus, medical image registration method, and medical image registration program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016292844-A1
Application number	US-201615075291-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 21, 2016
Priority date	Mar 31, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The medical image registration apparatus includes: a frequency distribution acquisition unit that acquires the frequency distribution of the density value of at least one of first and second medical images obtained by imaging the same subject; a gradation processing unit that performs gradation processing for increasing the frequency distribution in a density range where the number of pixels included in the unit density width is relatively large, of the acquired frequency distribution, and reducing the frequency distribution in a density range where the number of pixels included in the unit density width is relatively small, of the acquired frequency distribution, for at least the one medical image; and a registration processing unit that performs registration processing for matching the anatomical position of the subject included in the first medical image with the anatomical position of the subject included in the second medical image for the first and second medical images.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A medical image registration apparatus, comprising:
a frequency distribution acquisition unit that acquires first and second medical images by imaging the same subject and acquires a frequency distribution of a density value of at least one of the first and second medical images; a gradation processing unit that performs gradation processing for increasing a frequency distribution in a density range where the number of pixels included in a unit density width is relatively large, of the acquired frequency distribution, and reducing a frequency distribution in a density range where the number of pixels included in the unit density width is relatively small, of the acquired frequency distribution, for at least the one medical image; and a registration processing unit that performs registration processing for matching an anatomical position of the subject included in the first medical image with an anatomical position of the subject included in the second medical image for the first and second medical images, at least one of which has been subjected to the gradation processing.

2 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing based on a cumulative histogram of the frequency distribution.

3 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for linearly increasing the cumulative histogram.

4 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for matching a cumulative histogram of at least one of the first and second medical images with a cumulative histogram set in advance.

5 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for matching a cumulative histogram of at least one of the first and second medical images with a cumulative histogram set in advance.

6 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for bringing a cumulative histogram of a frequency distribution of a density value of the first medical image and a cumulative histogram of a frequency distribution of a density value of the second medical image close to each other.

7 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a subject region extraction unit that extracts a region of the subject from the first and second medical images, wherein the frequency distribution acquisition unit acquires a frequency distribution of a density value of a region of the subject of at least one of the first and second medical images, the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for the region of the subject based on the frequency distribution of the density value of the region of the subject, and the registration processing unit performs the registration processing between the region of the subject in the first medical image and the region of the subject in the second medical image.

8 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a subject region extraction unit that extracts a region of the subject from the first and second medical images, wherein the frequency distribution acquisition unit acquires a frequency distribution of a density value of a region of the subject of at least one of the first and second medical images, the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for the region of the subject based on the frequency distribution of the density value of the region of the subject, and the registration processing unit performs the registration processing between the region of the subject in the first medical image and the region of the subject in the second medical image.

9 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a subject region extraction unit that extracts a region of the subject from the first and second medical images, wherein the frequency distribution acquisition unit acquires a frequency distribution of a density value of a region of the subject of at least one of the first and second medical images, the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for the region of the subject based on the frequency distribution of the density value of the region of the subject, and the registration processing unit performs the registration processing between the region of the subject in the first medical image and the region of the subject in the second medical image.

10 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising:
a subject region extraction unit that extracts a region of the subject from the first and second medical images, wherein the frequency distribution acquisition unit acquires a frequency distribution of a density value of a region of the subject of at least one of the first and second medical images, the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for the region of the subject based on the frequency distribution of the density value of the region of the subject, and the registration processing unit performs the registration processing between the region of the subject in the first medical image and the region of the subject in the second medical image.

11 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 5 , further comprising:
a subject region extraction unit that extracts a region of the subject from the first and second medical images, wherein the frequency distribution acquisition unit acquires a frequency distribution of a density value of a region of the subject of at least one of the first and second medical images, the gradation processing unit performs the gradation processing for the region of the subject based on the frequency distribution of the density value of the region of the subject, and the registration processing unit performs the registration processing between the region of the subject in the first medical image and the region of the subject in the second medical image.

12 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first and second medical images are images captured by different modalities.

13 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the first and second medical images are images captured by different modalities.

14 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein the first and second medical images are images captured by different modalities.

15 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein the first and second medical images are images captured by different modalities.

16 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 12 ,
wherein the first medical image is an image captured by a computed tomography (CT) apparatus, and the second medical image is an image captured by a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus.

17 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first and second medical images are MM images captured by using different imaging methods.

18 . The medical image registration apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the first and second medical images are CT images captured by different types of CT apparatuses.

Assignees

• Fujifilm Corp

Inventors

• Karube Mikihiko

Classifications

• G06T7/0081

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T7/003 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T2207/10081

  Computed x-ray tomography [CT] · CPC title

• G06T7/0034

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T2207/10088

  Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] · CPC title