Blood vessel analysis apparatus, medical image diagnosis apparatus, and blood vessel analysis method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9928593-B2
Application number	US-201514731908-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 5, 2015
Priority date	Dec 7, 2012
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a structuring circuitry temporarily structures a dynamical model of analysis processing based on the time-series medical image. The identification circuitry identifies a latent variable of the dynamical model so that at least one of a prediction value of a blood vessel morphology and a prediction value of a bloodstream based on the temporarily structured dynamical model is in conformity with at least one of an observation value of the blood vessel morphology and an observation value of the bloodstream measured in advance. The analysis circuitry analyzes the dynamical model to which the identified latent variable is allocated.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A blood vessel analysis apparatus comprising:
a storage configured to store data of a time-series medical image of a blood vessel of a subject; and
processing circuitry configured to
temporarily structure a dynamical model of analysis processing based on the time-series medical image,
identify a latent variable of the dynamical model so that at least one of a prediction value of a blood vessel morphology and a prediction value of a bloodstream based on the temporarily structured dynamical model is in conformity with at least one of an observation value of the blood vessel morphology and an observation value of the bloodstream measured in advance,
analyze the dynamical model to which the identified latent variable is allocated, and
temporarily structure a dynamical model of analysis processing of an analysis target region, based on a time-series morphology index, a time-series shape deformation index, and the time-series medical image.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry performs structure analysis, fluid analysis, or, structural fluid interaction analysis with the dynamical model to which the identified latent variable is allocated, and calculates at least one of a prediction value of the time-series dynamical index and a prediction value of the time-series bloodstream.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry identifies the latent variable of the dynamical model so that the prediction value of the blood vessel morphology and the, prediction value of the bloodstream are in conformity with the observation value of the blood vessel morphology and the observation value of the bloodstream.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to
set the analysis target region in a blood vessel region included in the time-series medical image, and set a latent variable identification region in the analysis target region, and
calculate the time-series morphology index and the time-series shape deformation index of the analysis target region by performing image processing of the time-series medical image.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry locally sets the analysis target region to a lesion region or a treatment target.

6. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry locally sets the analysis target region to a blood vessel region where a diameter is equal to or more than 2 mm.

7. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry excludes a pixel region of a blood vessel in a heart from the analysis target region.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processing circuitry calculates a space distribution of a time-series dynamical index, based on a dynamical model to which the identified latent variable is allocated, and determines whether collateral exists or not based on a change mode of the time-series dynamical index in a blood vessel center line direction, and
further comprising a display configured to display a determination result given by the processing circuitry.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a storage storing each of a plurality of CT value ranges in association with a property of a blood vessel wall and a material model,
wherein the latent variable includes a material model, the time-series medical image is a time-series CT image generated by an X-ray computed tomography apparatus, and, the processing circuitry identifies a material model associated in the storage with a CT value of a pixel constituting a blood vessel wall region included in the medical image, and allocates the identified material model to the blood vessel wall region of the dynamical model.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the latent variable includes a boundary condition related to a blood flow inlet and a blood flow outlet, and the processing circuitry calculates an initial value of the boundary condition based on the time-series CT image generated by a CT scan for a subject injected with a contrast agent, by an X-ray computed tomography apparatus.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry sets a higher calculation density to an interest region in the dynamical model than another region.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the time-series medical image is a time-series CT image generated by an X-ray computed tomography apparatus, and the X-ray computed tomography apparatus executes CT scan so that a temporal resolution of a designation section in the time-series CT image is higher than a temporal resolution of another section.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the time-series medical image is a time-series CT image generated by an X-ray computed tomography apparatus when the subject is in a stress-less situation.

14. A medical image diagnosis apparatus comprising:
an imaging mechanism configured to generate data of a time-series medical image of a blood vessel of a subject; and
processing circuitry configured to
temporarily structure a dynamical model of analysis processing based on the time-series medical image,
identify a latent variable of the dynamical model so that at least one of a prediction value of a blood vessel morphology and a prediction value of a bloodstream based on the temporarily structured dynamical model is in conformity with at least one of an observation value of the blood vessel morphology and an observation value of the bloodstream measured in advance,
analyze the dynamical model to which the identified latent variable is allocated, and
temporarily structure a dynamical model of analysis processing of an analysis target region, based on a time-series morphology index, a time-series shape deformation index, and the time-series medical image.

15. A blood vessel analysis method comprising:
temporarily structuring a dynamical model of analysis processing based on a time-series medical image of a blood vessel of a subject;
identifying a latent variable of the dynamical model so that at least one of a prediction value of a blood vessel morphology and a prediction value of a bloodstream based on the temporarily structured dynamical model is in conformity with at least one of an observation value of the blood vessel morphology and an observation value of the bloodstream measured in advance; and
analysing the dynamical model to which the identified latent variable is allocated, wherein
the medical image is a CT image generated by an X-ray computed tomography apparatus, and
the X-ray computed tomography apparatus executes CT scan so that a temporal resolution of a designation section in the time-series CT image is higher than a temporal resolution of another section.

16. A blood vessel analysis apparatus comprising:
a storage configured to store data of a time-series medical image of a blood vessel of a subject captured with a CT scan;
processing circuitry configured to
calculate a dynamical index of the blood vessel in a center line direction of the blood vessel based on the time-series medical image, and
determine whether collateral exists or not, based on a change mode of a dynamical index in the center line direction, the change mode being a mode in which the dynamical index decreases at first position and turns to increase at second position which is located in distal side of the first position in the center line direction; and
the display displays a determination result given by the processing circuitry.

17. The apparatus according

Assignees

• Toshiba Medical Sys Corp

Inventors

• Ooga Junichiro
• Hirohata Kenji
• Kaminaga Shigeo
• Fujisawa Yasuko
• Wakai Satoshi
• Arakita Kazumasa
• Igarashi Takuma
• Ishii Hideaki

Classifications

• A61B6/5217

  extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data · CPC title

• A61B6/481

  involving the use of contrast agents · CPC title

• G06T7/0016 Primary

  involving temporal comparison · CPC title

• G06T7/251

  involving models · CPC title

• G06T2207/20076

  Probabilistic image processing · CPC title