Diagnosis support apparatus, method of controlling diagnosis support apparatus, and program therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9852269-B2
Application number	US-73857708-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 9, 2008
Priority date	Oct 18, 2007
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

A diagnosis support system which performs computer processing of data obtained from an object to be examined and presents the obtained diagnostic information is disclosed. The diagnosis support apparatus includes a diagnosis support processing unit which processes data obtained from the object to extract diagnosis support information, a storage unit which stores the examination history of the object, and a changing unit which changes a processing method in the diagnosis support processing unit in accordance with the examination history of the object stored in the storage unit. In at least one embodiment, diagnosis processing is executed to obtain medical diagnostic information by performing computer processing of data obtained from the object, and the processing method for diagnosis support processing is changed in accordance with the examination history of the object.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A diagnosis support apparatus operably coupled to a medical examination data acquisition apparatus, the diagnosis support apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a memory having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
obtain examination data of an object from the medical examination data acquisition apparatus;
process the examination data of the object to extract diagnosis support information;
store medical examination history of the object in a storage unit;
calculate an onset probability of a lesion based on the medical examination history of the object;
determine whether or not the object is taking a first medical examination based on the stored medical examination history of the object, wherein it is determined that the object is taking the first medical examination if the medical examination history of the object does not exist in the storage unit,
wherein, in a case where it is determined that the object is taking the first medical examination, a lesion of a size in a first range is extracted from the examination data, and
wherein, in a case where it is determined that the object is not taking the first medical examination, a lesion of a size in a second range smaller than the first range is extracted from the examination data, and wherein the second range is based on the calculated onset probability; and

control the medical examination data acquisition apparatus to change an acquisition parameter in the medical examination data acquisition apparatus based on the calculated onset probability.

2. The diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
associate and store, in a case database, a feature amount of information of the lesion in a case,
wherein the case database stores an important morbidity A, which is a relative disease severity among different kinds of diseases, a progress degree B, and an associated morbidity C, and
wherein a feature amount from information about the lesion is calculated, and a medical importance of the lesion is obtained from a similarity between the calculated feature amount and a feature amount with a case stored in the case database, wherein a medical importance I is calculated from an equation of I=A*B*C.

3. The diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second range is changed in accordance with elapsed time.

4. The diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to output the extracted lesion.

5. A control method performed by a computer for a diagnosis support apparatus operably coupled to a medical examination data acquisition apparatus, the diagnosis support apparatus including a storage unit configured to store medical examination history of an object, the method comprising:
obtaining examination data of an object from the medical examination data acquisition apparatus;
processing the examination data of the object to extract diagnosis support information;
calculating an onset probability of a lesion based on the medical examination history of the object;
determining whether or not the object is taking a first medical examination, based on the medical examination history of the object stored in the storage unit, wherein it is determined that the object is taking the first medical examination if the medical examination history of the object does not exist in the storage unit,
wherein, in a case where it is determined that the object is taking the first medical examination, a lesion of a size in a first range is extracted from the examination data, and
wherein, in a case where it is determined that the object is not taking the first medical examination, a lesion of a size in a second range smaller than the first range is extracted from the examination data, and wherein the second range is based on the calculated onset probability; and

controlling the medical examination data acquisition apparatus to change an acquisition parameter in the medical examination data acquisition apparatus based on the calculated onset probability.

6. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, which, when executed by a computer for a diagnosis support apparatus operably coupled to a medical examination data acquisition apparatus, the diagnosis support apparatus including a storage unit configured to store medical examination history of an object, causes the computer to perform a method comprising:
obtaining examination data of an object from the medical examination data acquisition apparatus;
processing the examination data of the object to extract diagnosis support information;
calculating an onset probability of a lesion based on the medical examination history of the object;
determining whether or not the object is taking a first medical examination, based on the medical examination history of the object stored in the storage unit, wherein it is determined that the object is taking the first medical examination if the medical examination history of the object does not exist in the storage unit,
wherein, in a case where it is determined that the object is taking the first medical examination, a lesion of a size in a first range is extracted from the examination data, and
wherein, in a case where it is determined that the object is not taking the first medical examination, a lesion of a size in a second range smaller than the first range is extracted from the examination data, and wherein the second range is based on the calculated onset probability; and

controlling the medical examination data acquisition apparatus to change an acquisition parameter in the medical examination data acquisition apparatus based on the calculated onset probability.

7. A diagnosis support apparatus operably coupled to a medical examination data acquisition apparatus, the diagnosis support apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
a memory having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
obtain examination data of an object from the medical examination data acquisition apparatus;
extract, by processing the examination data of the object, a lesion candidate from that data;
determine whether the extracted lesion candidate is malignant or benign;
store medical examination history of the object;
calculate an onset probability of a lesion based on the medical examination history of the object;
change criterion used for determining whether the extracted lesion candidate is malignant or benign, based on the calculated onset probability; and
control the medical examination data apparatus to change an acquisition parameter in the medical examination data acquisition apparatus based on the calculated onset probability.

8. The diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the medical examination data acquisition apparatus is an X-ray CT apparatus, and
wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:
determine whether the onset probability is low or high;
control the X-ray CT apparatus to reduce the dose of an X-ray source of the X-ray CT apparatus or increase the slice intervals obtained by the X-ray CT apparatus when it is determined that the onset probability is low; and
control the X-ray CT apparatus to increase the dose of the X-ray source or decrease the slice intervals obtained by the X-ray CT apparatus when it is determined that the onset probability is high.

Assignees

• Sakagawa Yukio
• Imamura Hiroshi
• Katayama Akihiro
• Shinbata Hiroyuki
• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Sakagawa Yukio
• Imamura Hiroshi
• Katayama Akihiro
• Shinbata Hiroyuki

Classifications

• A61B6/00

  Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis; Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis combined with radiation therapy equipment (instruments measuring radiation intensity for application in the field of nuclear medicine, e.g. in vivo counting, G01T1/161) · CPC title

• G16H50/20 Primary

  for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems · CPC title

• G16H30/20

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

• G16H50/30

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

• G06T2207/30004

  Biomedical image processing · CPC title