Method for controlling an evaluation device for medical images of patient, evaluation device, computer program and electronically readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019164643-A1
Application number	US-201816200896-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 27, 2018
Priority date	Nov 28, 2017
Publication date	May 30, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for controlling an evaluation system for medical images of a patient is proposed. Medical images of the patient acquired at different time points are stored in an image database. Upon reception of a user command associated with a time-dependent evaluation command including at least one evaluation parameter describing an evaluation to be performed and identification information describing the patient, medical images of the patient fulfilling a relevancy criterion depending on the evaluation parameter and acquired at different time points are retrieved from the image database. The retrieved images are registered to each other in at least one registration process. Finally, a composite evaluation image data set including a time series of evaluation images is derived from the registered retrieved images and output to the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for controlling an evaluation system for medical images of a patient, wherein medical images of the patient acquired at different time points are stored in an image database, wherein, upon reception of a command from a user associated with a time-dependent evaluation command including at least one evaluation parameter describing an evaluation to be performed and identification information describing the patient, the method comprising:
retrieving medical images of the patient, fulfilling a relevancy criterion depending on the at least one evaluation parameter and acquired at different time points, from the image database; registering the medical images retrieved, to other of the medical images retrieved, in at least one registration process; deriving a composite evaluation image data set, including a time series of evaluation images, from the registered retrieved images; and outputting the composite evaluation image data set derived to the user.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating evaluation images for each time point, of different time points, from the medical images registered, depending on the at least one evaluation parameter.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the calculating includes:
calculating, upon at least one of the at least one evaluation parameter defining at least one of an area of interest of the patient and at least one anatomical feature of the patient, the evaluation images to show image data of the patient in a common depiction area including the at least one of an area of interest of the patient and at least one anatomical feature of the patient.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein at least one of two-dimensional evaluation images and three-dimensional evaluation images are calculated.

5 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
applying, upon the medical images registered including images acquired by different imaging modalities, at least one conversion algorithm to image data of at least one of the different imaging modalities to calculate virtual image data of at least one other of the different imaging modalities.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing at least one acquisition parameter describing acquisition geometry of the medical images, for each medical image in the database, wherein at least one of
the registering is performed using the at least one acquisition parameter of at least one medical image retrieved,
anatomical features shown in medical images retrieved to be registered are identified and used for registration of the medical images retrieved, and
at least one of rigid and deformable registration is used.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the medical images are stored in DICOM format.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
applying, upon at least one of the at least one evaluation parameter describing at least one anatomical feature as a subject of the evaluation, an image analysis algorithm to the evaluation images to derive feature information on the anatomical feature for all time points.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein at least one of
at least one annotation information, stored with at least one medical image retrieved in the database, is used in determining the feature information and the image analysis algorithm includes a segmentation regarding the at least one anatomical feature, and wherein segmentation results at at least one time point are applied to segmentation at at least one other time point.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein at least one quantitative value describing a temporal change of a property of the at least one anatomical feature is determined as the feature information.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the feature information is output with the composite evaluation image data set and wherein the feature information is output to the composite evaluation image data set.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the feature information is used for at least one of sorting and filtering the evaluation images.

13 . An evaluation device, comprising:
a database interface to at least one image database, wherein medical images of patients acquired at different time points are stored in the at least one image database; an input unit to receive a command from a user, the command being associated with a time-dependent evaluation command including at least one evaluation parameter describing an evaluation to be performed and including identification information describing a patient; a retrieval unit to retrieve medical images of the patient from the at least one image database, the medical images fulfilling a relevancy criterion dependent on the at least one evaluation parameter and being medical images acquired at different time points; a registration unit to register the medical images retrieved to other of the medical images retrieved; a compilation unit to derive a composite evaluation image data set including a time series of evaluation images from the medical images registered; and an output unit to output to the user, the composite evaluation image data set derived.

14 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for execution on an evaluation device, the evaluation device being configured, upon execution of the computer program, to perform the method of claim 1 .

15 . A non-transitory electronically readable memory, storing a computer program for execution on an evaluation device, the evaluation device being configured, upon execution of the computer program, to perform the method of claim 1 .

16 . The method of claim 3 , wherein at least one of two-dimensional evaluation images and three-dimensional evaluation images are calculated.

17 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
applying, upon the registered medical images including images acquired by different imaging modalities, at least one conversion algorithm to image data of at least one of the different imaging modalities to calculate virtual image data of at least one other of the different imaging modalities.

18 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
storing at least one acquisition parameter describing acquisition geometry of the medical images, for each medical image in the database, wherein at least one of
the registering is performed using the at least one acquisition parameter of at least one medical image retrieved,
anatomical features shown in medical images retrieved to be registered are identified and used for registration of the medical images retrieved, and
at least one of rigid and deformable registration is used.

19 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the medical images are stored in DICOM format.

20 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the feature information is output with the evaluation image data set and wherein the feature information is output to the evaluation image data set.

21 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the feature information is integrated into the evaluation image data set.

22 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the feature information is integrated into the evaluation image data set.

23 . An evaluation device, comprising:
a memory, storing machine-executable code and storing at least one image database; and at least one processor, coupled to the memory, for executing the machine-executable code stored on the memory to configure the at least one processor to:
acquire medical images of patients, via a da

Assignees

• Siemens Healthcare Gmbh

Inventors

• Heismann Bjoern
• Ionasec Razvan

Classifications

• G06T7/33

  using feature-based methods · CPC title

• G16H30/20 Primary

  for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS · CPC title

• G16H30/40 Primary

  for processing medical images, e.g. editing · CPC title

• G06T7/0016

  involving temporal comparison · CPC title