JP5455512B2 - Medical image display device, medical image display method, and program for executing the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a medical image display device that displays a luminal organ such as a blood vessel on a display device based on a maximum value projection method, a medical image display method, and a program that executes the medical image display method.

  When observing the running state of a blood vessel, an image (also referred to as a MIP image) in which a maximum value is projected from three-dimensional image data captured by contrast imaging is often used. The maximum value projection method, for example, as shown in Patent Document 1, follows a path in a straight line from the three-dimensional image data created by a large number of tomographic images in the line of sight, and displays the maximum value in the path on the projection plane. It is a method to do.

JP 11-056840 A

  With the method described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to observe the running state of a blood vessel by the maximum value projection method. However, in the maximum value projection method, depth information from the line-of-sight direction is lost, and there is a problem that the traveling direction of the blood vessel becomes unclear when the traveling blood vessels are interlaced.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a medical image display apparatus, a medical image display method, and a program for executing the medical image display apparatus capable of clearly displaying the traveling direction of the blood vessel of the maximum projected image. It is in.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention creates a display format setting table from the characteristic amount of a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region of the three-dimensional image data, and displays the display format setting table for the predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region in the maximum value projection image. It is possible to achieve this by assigning a display format based on and displaying the maximum value projected image on the display device based on the assigned display format.

Specifically, a storage device that stores a tomographic image taken by a medical image tomography apparatus, a processing unit that processes a tomographic image stored in the storage device, and a display that displays a processing result processed by the processing unit. In the medical image display device constituted by the apparatus, as a processing means, a function of extracting a blood vessel region from a tomographic image stored in a storage device , a function of creating three-dimensional image data in the extracted blood vessel region, and A function for calculating the length of a predetermined blood vessel core line in the blood vessel region of the three-dimensional image data as a feature value, a function for creating a display format setting table from the calculated blood vessel feature value, and a tomogram stored in the storage A function for creating a maximum value projection image from an image and a display format for a predetermined blood vessel in a blood vessel region in the maximum value projection image is determined based on a display format setting table Can be achieved by providing function and a function for displaying the synthesized and display the maximum intensity projection image is applied the display format determined for a given vessel of the vascular area.

  By configuring as described above, since a display format based on the display format setting table is given for a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region, each blood vessel can be identified. It becomes possible to identify each blood vessel.

  According to the present invention, a medical image display device, a medical image display method, and a method for clearly displaying the traveling direction of the blood vessel of the maximum projection image by giving a predetermined display format to the blood vessel of the maximum projection image are executed. Program can be provided.

Hardware configuration diagram of a medical image diagnosis support system to which the medical image display device of the present invention is applied The figure which shows the flowchart which the medical image display apparatus 5 which is Example 1 of this invention performs The figure which shows the three-dimensional image data regarding the coronary artery region 20 The figure which shows the example which calculated the core line to the end of the blood vessel in the three-dimensional image data shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of a display format setting table The figure which shows an example of the maximum value projection image and the maximum value projection image colored according to the blood vessel The figure which shows the flowchart which the medical image display apparatus 5 which is Example 2 of this invention performs. Diagram showing search for boundary of region from line-of-sight direction The figure which shows the search of the maximum value in the route from the boundary of the region from the line of sight The figure which shows the flowchart which performs the process of step S26 The figure which shows the comparison of the maximum value projection image to which Example 1 is applied, and the maximum value projection image to which Example 2 is applied Example of display format setting table Example of display format setting table Example of display format setting table The figure which shows an example of the maximum value projection image to which Example 3 is applied Example of display format setting table The figure which shows an example of the maximum value projection image to which Example 4 is applied

  A preferred embodiment of the medical image display device of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a medical image diagnosis support system to which a medical image display apparatus of the present invention is applied.
The medical image diagnosis support system 1 includes a medical image photographing apparatus 2 such as an X-ray CT apparatus and an MRI apparatus, a medical image database 3 that stores the photographed medical images, and an image created based on the image data. And a medical image display device 5 for displaying the image data, and is configured by a LAN 4 for exchanging the image data stored in the medical image database 3 with the medical image display device 5.

  FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which the image data stored in the medical image database 3 and the medical image display device 5 are exchanged via the LAN 4, but the image data is directly stored in the storage device 8 of the medical image display device 5. It may be configured to store, or may be configured to be used together with LAN4 connection.

Next, details of the medical image display device 5 will be described.
The medical image display device 5 includes a central processing unit CPU 6 that mainly controls the operation of each component, a memory 7 that stores a control program and serves as a work area when the program is executed, an operating system (OS), and peripheral devices And a storage device 8 for storing various application software including a program for performing processing for obtaining support information from image data. A network adapter 9 that connects the LAN 4 and the medical image display device 5 to exchange data, a display memory 14 that temporarily stores display data, and a display device that displays an image based on data from the display memory 14 15, a mouse 12 as a position information input device, a controller 13 and a keyboard 11 for detecting the state of the mouse 12 and outputting signals such as the position of the mouse pointer on the display device 15 and the state of the mouse 12 to the CPU 6; The above-described components are connected by a common bus 10.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described. The embodiment of the present invention includes a central processing unit CPU6 that embodies a medical image display device, and the central processing unit CPU6 is described in the embodiment of the present invention. A program for realizing the function to be executed is executed.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart executed by the medical image display apparatus 5 that is Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In the first embodiment, a case where a coronary artery that is one of the blood vessels of the heart is projected to the maximum value will be described as an example.

  First, in step S11, medical image data in which a cardiac region imaged by the medical image imaging device 2 is an imaging range is read and stored in the medical image database 3.

  In step S12, a coronary artery region is extracted from the image data stored in the medical image database 3. Extraction of the coronary artery region can be realized by using an existing algorithm such as a region growing method.

  In step 13, 3D image data is created from the extracted coronary artery region. For example, a coronary artery region 20 is created as shown in FIG.

In step S14, a core line passing through the vicinity of the center of the blood vessel cross section from the coronary artery region 20 shown in FIG. 3 is calculated. Here, the core line is calculated from an arbitrary point such as a branching portion of the coronary artery to the end of the blood vessel.
FIG. 4 shows an example in which the core wire is calculated up to the end of the blood vessel, and the core wires 21, 22, and 23 show three core wires having different starting points. The calculation of the core wire can be realized by an existing algorithm such as a diameter reduction method.
The core line 23 is calculated by calculating the core line from the start point 23s to the end of the blood vessel 23-1, which branches at the branch point 23d, and branches from the start point 23s to the branch point 23d. What is necessary is just to calculate the core line to the terminal of the blood vessel 23-2. At this time, the core line of the blood vessel 23-1 and the blood vessel 23-2 is common from the starting point 23s to the branch point 23d.

In step S15, a display format setting table is created based on the length of the core wire.
Here, an example of the display format setting table will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 shows the display format setting table 24, which is a graph showing the luminance according to the distance from the starting point of the core wire with the length of the core wire being maximized. This luminance may be color or black and white.

  Specifically, the brightness corresponding to the relative distance from the starting point of the core wire with the maximum length of the core wire for each of the core wires 21, 22, and 23 shown in FIG. 4 calculated in step S14 is displayed from the display format setting table. Assign.

  For the core wire 23, color luminance is assigned to the core wire of the branching blood vessel 23-1 and the core wire of the branching blood vessel 23-2. In step S18 described below, an image 26 obtained by combining the maximum value projected image 25 and the display format determined in step S17 is displayed on the display device 15. At that time, an image may be displayed by selecting either the longer blood vessel display format or the shorter blood vessel display format from the origin 23s to the branch point 23d, which are common blood vessel portions. .

  The graph in the display format setting table may be either linear (24-1) or non-linear (24-2, 24-3). In addition, although the display format setting table 24 shows an example in which the luminance decreases as the core line goes toward the end, the luminance may increase as it goes toward the end. The display format setting table may be a table having different colors depending on conditions.

  In the first embodiment, a case will be described in which different display format setting tables are used depending on differences in the starting points of the core wires.

In step S16, the maximum value projection is performed from the three-dimensional image data of the coronary artery region 20.
In step S17, the display format is determined based on the display format setting table acquired for each of the core wires 21, 22, and 23 according to the distance from the starting point.

  Finally, in step S18, the maximum value projection image 25 created in step S16 and the image 26 obtained by combining the display format determined in step S17 are displayed on the display device 15.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a maximum value projection image and a maximum value projection image to which a display format is assigned for each blood vessel according to the first embodiment.
As can be seen from FIG. 6, since the display format is given for each blood vessel with respect to the maximum value projection image without depth information, it is possible to identify the blood vessels that are interlinked. Also, by changing the brightness according to the distance of the core wire, even if the traveling blood vessels are mixed, the traveling direction of the blood vessels can be clearly displayed, and the length from the branching portion of the blood vessels can be estimated Can do. Furthermore, it is possible to recognize a distorted blood vessel due to a change in luminance even for a blood vessel that is linear in the line-of-sight direction but distorted in the depth direction.

Next, Example 2 of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart executed by the medical image display apparatus 5 that is Embodiment 2 of the present invention. The difference between the second embodiment described with reference to FIG. 7 and the first embodiment described with reference to FIG. 2 is step S26 in FIG. 7, and the other steps are the same.

That is, in step S26, the maximum value projection method considering the anteroposterior relationship of the blood vessels is used.
In the second embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, a case where the coronary artery, which is a blood vessel of the heart, projects the maximum value will be described as an example.

Here, step S26 will be described.
As shown in FIG. 8, first, the boundary of the region is searched from the line-of-sight direction in the 3D image data. As shown in FIG. 8, when the boundary of the region is detected, the region is set as the blood vessel region 1, and the detected boundary is set as the start point 27.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 9, the search for the maximum value in the route is started from the start point 27. The search for the maximum value is continued again until an area boundary is detected. When the boundary of the area is detected again, the maximum value from the start point 27 to the end point 28 is projected on the projection plane with the point as the end point 28, and the process is terminated.

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart for executing the process of step S26.
In step S31, an area boundary is searched from the line-of-sight direction.
In step S32, the search is repeated until a boundary is detected. When the boundary is detected, the boundary is set as the start point 27.
In step S33, when the boundary is detected, the search for the maximum value in the route is started from the start point 27.
In step S34, the process continues again until the boundary of the region is detected.
In step S35, when the boundary of the area is detected again, the search is terminated, and the maximum value projection process in step S36 is performed.

  By using this step S26 described in the second embodiment, the maximum value projection method considering the anteroposterior relationship of blood vessels can be realized.

  FIG. 11 shows a comparison between a maximum value projection image to which Example 1 is applied and a maximum value projection image to which Example 2 is applied. As shown in FIG. 11, when a blood vessel with a low CT value located in the front and a blood vessel with a high CT value located in the back intersect, using Example 1, the anteroposterior relationship of those blood vessels may be reversed. However, if Example 2 is used, the foreground blood vessel is known in advance, and therefore, it is possible to display in a state where the anteroposterior relationship of these blood vessels is maintained.

Next, Example 3 of the present invention will be described.
The third embodiment is that the user can adjust the range of the core line to which the display format is added in step S15 of the flowchart executed by the medical image display device 5 shown in FIG. 2 as the first embodiment.

  In FIG. 12, the adjustment point L is set in the display format setting table 24 displayed on the display device 15, and the range to which the display format is given can be set by adjusting the adjustment point L with the keyboard 11 or the mouse 12. It becomes possible. FIG. 12 shows an example in which the distance from the starting point to the adjustment point L is displayed at a constant high brightness, and the distance from the adjustment point L to the end is displayed at a constant low brightness. The luminance from the adjustment point L to the end can be made constant by decreasing the luminance of the lens at a predetermined rate.

  In FIG. 14, the adjustment points L1 and L2 are set in the display format setting table 24 displayed on the display device 15, and the range to which the display format is given by adjusting the adjustment points L1 and L2 with the keyboard 11 or the mouse 12 is shown. It becomes possible to set. In this case, the starting point to the adjusting point L1 are displayed with low luminance, the adjusting point L1 to the adjusting point L2 are displayed with high luminance, and the adjusting point L2 to the end are displayed with low luminance.

  12 to 14 show an example of the display format setting table. The graph of the display format setting table is similar to the step function display shown in FIGS. 12 and 14, or the non-linear display shown in FIG. Such a display, a linear display, or a combination thereof may be used.

  As described above, according to the third embodiment, the user can freely change the color display in a limited range, the range in which blood vessels are rendered by the step function, and the range in which the blood vessel is hidden. FIG. 15 shows an example of a maximum value projection image to which the third embodiment is applied.

Next, Example 4 of the present invention will be described.
The fourth embodiment is that a plurality of colors are used in step S15 of the flowchart executed by the medical image display apparatus 5 shown in FIG.

  In the display format setting table as shown in FIG. 16, since the color changes depending on the length of the core wire, the maximum value projection image can be displayed in color. Although FIG. 16 shows an example of two colors of blue and red, a plurality of colors may be used.

  This Example 4 can give a recognizable luminance value to the end of a blood vessel that has been difficult to see because the luminance value is low, so that it is possible to eliminate difficulty in recognizing the end and color The crossing part can be identified by the difference. FIG. 17 shows an example of the maximum value projection image to which the fourth embodiment is applied.

  In addition, although the Example of this invention was demonstrated in Example 1- Example 4, this invention is not limited to these.

  1 Medical image diagnosis support system, 2 Medical imaging device, 3 Medical image database, 4 LAN, 5 Medical image display device, 6 Central processing unit CPU, 7 Memory, 8 Storage device, 9 Network adapter, 10 Common bus, 11 Keyboard , 12 mouse, 13 controller, 14 display memory, 15 display device

Claims (8)

A storage device for storing a tomographic image taken by the medical image tomography apparatus; a processing unit for processing the tomographic image stored in the storage device; a display device for displaying a processing result processed by the processing unit; A medical image display device comprising:
The processing means has a function of extracting a blood vessel region from a tomographic image stored in the storage device;
A function of creating three-dimensional image data in the extracted blood vessel region;
A function of calculating the length of a predetermined blood vessel core line in the blood vessel region of the created three-dimensional image data as a feature amount ;
A function of creating a display format setting table from the calculated blood vessel feature amount;
A function of creating a maximum value projection image from a tomographic image stored in the storage device;
A function of determining a display format based on the display format setting table for a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region in the maximum value projection image;
A medical image display device having a function of giving the determined display format to a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region and combining it with a maximum value projection image and displaying it on a display device. The medical image display device according to claim 1 .
The function of creating a display format setting table from the calculated blood vessel feature amount has a maximum value for the length of the core line of a predetermined blood vessel, and a color corresponding to the relative distance from the starting point of the core line based on the maximum value. A medical image display device characterized by having a function of making the brightness correspond. The medical image display device according to claim 1.
The function of creating a display format setting table from the calculated blood vessel feature amount has a maximum value for the length of the core line of a predetermined blood vessel, and a color corresponding to the relative distance from the starting point of the core line based on the maximum value. A medical image display device characterized in that it has a function of displaying a graph so that the brightness of each corresponds. In the medical image display device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ,
The medical image display device characterized in that the function of creating three-dimensional image data in the extracted blood vessel region includes a function of recognizing a blood vessel in the foreground among blood vessels in the blood vessel region. The medical image display device according to claim 4 .
The function of displaying the maximum value projection image on the display device based on the determined display format is a function of displaying the maximum value projection image on the display device so that the blood vessel in the foreground in the blood vessel region can be recognized. A medical image display device comprising: In the medical image display device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ,
The function of assigning the determined display format to a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region and combining it with the maximum value projection image and displaying it on the display device includes a function of determining a display range based on the display format. A medical image display device characterized by the above. Extracting a blood vessel region from a tomographic image taken by a medical image tomography apparatus;
Creating three-dimensional image data in the extracted blood vessel region;
Calculating the length of a predetermined blood vessel core line in the blood vessel region of the created three-dimensional image data as a feature amount ;
Creating a display format setting table from the calculated blood vessel features;
Creating a maximum projection image from a tomographic image taken by a medical image tomography apparatus;
Determining a display format based on the display format setting table for a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region in the maximum value projection image;
A medical image display method comprising the steps of: assigning the determined display format to a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region, synthesizing it with a maximum value projection image, and displaying it on a display device. On the computer,
A function of extracting a blood vessel region from a tomographic image taken by a medical image tomography apparatus;
A function of creating three-dimensional image data in the extracted blood vessel region;
A function of calculating the length of a predetermined blood vessel core line in the blood vessel region of the created three-dimensional image data as a feature amount ;
A function of creating a display format setting table from the calculated blood vessel feature amount;
A function for creating a maximum projection image from a tomographic image taken by a medical image tomography apparatus;
A function of determining a display format based on the display format setting table for a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region in the maximum value projection image;
A function of giving the determined display format for a predetermined blood vessel in the blood vessel region and combining it with a maximum value projection image and displaying it on a display device;
A program for executing a medical image display comprising:

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