Motion correction for medical imaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016358334-A1
Application number	US-201615174130-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 6, 2016
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for correcting motion during medical imaging involve using a detector to track annihilation photons produced by one of (i) external emitting sources placed onto a body of a person being imaged or (ii) an object of interest in the body. Motion information is generated based on the tracking. A motion-corrected image is formed from recorded image data, using the motion information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for correcting motion during medical imaging, the method comprising:
tracking annihilation photons produced by one of (i) external emitting sources placed onto a body of a person being imaged or (ii) an object of interest in the body; generating motion information based on the tracking; and forming a motion-corrected image from recorded image data using the motion information.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the motion information includes motion vectors between static regions corresponding to locations of limited or no motion.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
discarding portions of the recorded image data that are associated with non-static regions.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the motion-corrected image is formed by transforming the static regions to a reference position.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein annihilation photons produced by the external emitting sources are tracked, and wherein the transforming includes calculating transformation matrices from centroid locations of the external emitting sources.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the motion information includes a respiratory waveform.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
inserting gating tags into the recorded image data based on the respiratory waveform.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the gating tags are inserted at local maxima for each of a plurality of respiratory cycles.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
applying amplitude or phase-based gating to the recorded image data based on the inserted gating tags.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein annihilation photons produced by the object of interest are tracked, and wherein the object of interest is a lesion or an edge of an anatomical surface.

11 . A system for correcting motion during medical imaging, the system comprising:
a detector device that tracks annihilation photons produced by one of (i) external emitting sources placed onto a body of a person being imaged or (ii) an object of interest in the body; and a hardware processor that generates motion information based on the tracking, and forms a motion-corrected image from recorded image data using the motion information.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the motion information includes motion vectors between static regions corresponding to locations of limited or no motion.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor discards portions of the recorded image data that are associated with non-static regions.

14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor forms the motion-corrected image by transforming the static regions to a reference position.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the detector device tracks annihilation photons produced by the external emitting sources, and wherein the transforming includes calculating transformation matrices from centroid locations of the external emitting sources.

16 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the motion information includes a respiratory waveform.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the processor inserts gating tags into the recorded image data based on the respiratory waveform.

18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the gating tags are inserted at local maxima for each of a plurality of respiratory cycles.

19 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the processor applies amplitude or phase-based gating to the recorded image data based on the inserted gating tags.

20 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the detector device tracks annihilation photons produced by the object of interest, and wherein the object of interest is a lesion or an edge of an anatomical surface.

Assignees

• Univ Tennessee Res Found

Inventors

• Osborne Dustin R
• Hu Dongming
• Lee Sang Hyeb

Classifications

• A61B6/032

  Transmission computed tomography [CT] · CPC title

• G16H50/30

  for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment · CPC title

• G06T2207/10104

  Positron emission tomography [PET] · CPC title

• A61B6/5264

  due to motion · CPC title

• A61B6/5205

  involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data · CPC title