JP6166871B2 - Blood vessel age output device, blood vessel age output method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a blood vessel age output device that outputs a blood vessel age according to information about blood vessels of the retina.

  The fundus is a place where blood vessels can be directly observed. Therefore, diagnosis using a fundus image has been performed for some time. For example, Patent Document 1 describes that a blood vessel diameter of a fundus image is accurately determined and information useful for diagnosis of a disease such as hypertension is provided.

JP 2007-97634 A

  Only information about the direction parallel to the retina can be obtained from the fundus image, and information about the vertical direction of the retina could not be obtained. On the other hand, in recent years, an optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been used. By using the optical coherence tomography, a vertical cross-sectional image of the retina can be obtained, and for example, age-related macular degeneration can be diagnosed. However, it cannot be said that the information obtained from the cross section of the retinal blood vessel is sufficiently utilized, and further utilization has been desired.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an apparatus and the like that can effectively use information in the vertical direction of the retina.

In order to achieve the above object, the blood vessel age output device according to the present invention has one of the values of the outer diameter of the artery in the vertical direction of the retina, the thickness of the arterial wall in the vertical direction of the retina, and the thickness of the vein wall in the vertical direction of the retina. Blood vessel information reception unit using blood vessel information reception unit that receives blood vessel information, storage unit that stores blood vessel age relationship information indicating a relationship between blood vessel information and age, and blood vessel age relationship information stored in the storage unit An acquisition unit that acquires a blood vessel age that is an age according to blood vessel information received by the unit, and a blood vessel age output unit that outputs the blood vessel age acquired by the acquisition unit.
With such a configuration, the blood vessel age of the subject can be acquired and output using information on the vertical direction of the retina such as the outer diameter of the artery in the vertical direction of the retina, the artery wall thickness, or the vein wall thickness. The blood vessel age can be used for, for example, diagnosis of a disease.

  In the blood vessel age output device according to the present invention, the blood vessel information received by the blood vessel information receiving unit may be measured using an optical coherence tomometer.

Further, in the blood vessel age output device according to the present invention, both the real age reception unit that receives the actual age of the subject, the blood vessel age output by the blood vessel age output unit, and the actual age received by the real age reception unit are used. A function value calculation unit that calculates a function value that increases as the difference between the two ages increases, and a function value output unit that outputs the function value calculated by the function value calculation unit Also good.
With such a configuration, the degree of deviation between the blood vessel age and the actual age can be known. For example, the severity of a disease or the like can be known using the value of the function.

In the vascular age output device according to the present invention, the function is a function that increases in value as the age difference obtained by subtracting the actual age received by the actual age receiving unit from the vascular age output by the vascular age output unit is increased. Also good.
With this configuration, the function value can be calculated using the age difference between the blood vessel age and the actual age.

In the blood vessel age output device according to the present invention, an image storage unit that stores a cross-sectional image of a retinal blood vessel, which is obtained by an optical coherence tomography, and a cross-sectional image that is stored in the image storage unit are used. A blood vessel information acquiring unit that acquires information, and the blood vessel information receiving unit may receive the blood vessel information acquired by the blood vessel information acquiring unit.
With such a configuration, blood vessel information can be automatically acquired from a cross-sectional image of the retina, improving user convenience.

  Further, in the blood vessel age output device according to the present invention, the blood vessel information acquisition unit saw a condition indicating that the change in the reflection intensity in the direction perpendicular to the retina is a blood vessel in the cross-sectional image stored in the image storage unit. It is possible to sequentially determine whether or not the blood vessel is in the scanning direction by the optical coherence tomography, and measure the outer diameter and inner diameter of the blood vessel in the blood vessel region that satisfies the condition. In addition, the blood vessel information acquisition unit may acquire blood vessel information by distinguishing between an artery and a vein by using the reflection intensity and wall thickness of the blood vessel wall in a region that satisfies the condition indicating that it is a blood vessel.

In the blood vessel age output device according to the present invention, the blood vessel information may be a wall thickness of an artery or vein in the vertical direction of the retina, and the wall thickness may be calculated using the outer diameter and inner diameter of the blood vessel.
With such a configuration, it is possible to obtain a wall thickness with higher accuracy than in the case of directly measuring the wall thickness.

In the blood vessel age output device according to the present invention, the blood vessel information may be an average value of two or more measured values.
With such a configuration, it is possible to acquire a more accurate blood vessel age.

  According to the blood vessel age output device and the like according to the present invention, it is possible to know the blood vessel age using information related to the blood vessels in the vertical direction of the retina.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the blood vessel age output device by Embodiment 1 of this invention. The flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the blood vessel age output device by the embodiment The figure which shows an example of the fundus image in the same embodiment The figure which shows an example of the cross-sectional image acquired with the optical coherence tomography in the same embodiment The figure which shows an example of the expanded sectional image in the embodiment Schematic diagram showing a cross-sectional image of the artery in the same embodiment The figure for demonstrating the change of the reflection intensity of the retina perpendicular | vertical direction in the embodiment The figure which shows the measurement result regarding the relationship between age and artery inner diameter in the embodiment The figure which shows the measurement result regarding the relationship between age and artery outer diameter in the embodiment The figure which shows the measurement result regarding the relationship between age and artery wall thickness in the embodiment The figure which shows the measurement result regarding the relationship between age and vein inner diameter in the embodiment The figure which shows the measurement result regarding the relationship between age and vein outer diameter in the embodiment The figure which shows the measurement result regarding the relationship between age and vein wall thickness in the embodiment Schematic diagram showing an example of the appearance of the computer system in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of a structure of the computer system in the embodiment

  Hereinafter, a blood vessel age output device according to the present invention will be described using embodiments. In the following embodiments, components and steps denoted by the same reference numerals are the same or equivalent, and repetitive description may be omitted.

(Embodiment 1)
A blood vessel age output device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The blood vessel age output device according to the present embodiment acquires and outputs a blood vessel age using information related to blood vessels in the vertical direction of the retina.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a blood vessel age output device 1 according to the present embodiment. The blood vessel age output device 1 according to the present embodiment includes an image storage unit 11, a blood vessel information acquisition unit 12, a blood vessel information reception unit 13, a storage unit 14, an acquisition unit 15, a blood vessel age output unit 16, and a blood vessel. An age storage unit 17, a real age reception unit 18, a function value calculation unit 19, and a function value output unit 20 are provided.

  The image storage unit 11 stores a cross-sectional image acquired by an optical coherence tomography. The cross-sectional image is a cross-sectional image of a blood vessel of the retina. The cross-sectional image may be obtained by, for example, a circle scan, or may be obtained by a linear scan. In the present embodiment, the case where the cross-sectional image is obtained by a circle scan around the optic nerve head will be mainly described. The cross-sectional image is sometimes called a tomographic image. The image format of the cross-sectional image is not limited. For example, the cross-sectional image may be JPEG or other image format.

  The process in which the cross-sectional image is stored in the image storage unit 11 does not matter. For example, a cross-sectional image may be stored in the image storage unit 11 via a recording medium, or a cross-sectional image transmitted via a communication line or the like may be stored in the image storage unit 11. Alternatively, a cross-sectional image scanned by the optical coherence tomography may be stored in the image storage unit 11. Storage in the image storage unit 11 may be temporary storage in a RAM or the like, or may be long-term storage. The image storage unit 11 can be realized by a predetermined recording medium (for example, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc.).

The blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 acquires blood vessel information using the cross-sectional image stored in the image storage unit 11. The blood vessel information is one of values of the arterial outer diameter in the vertical direction of the retina, the arterial wall thickness in the vertical direction of the retina, and the vein wall thickness in the vertical direction of the retina. The vertical direction is a direction perpendicular to the retina and a direction of a cross-sectional image obtained by an optical coherence tomography. Therefore, the vertical direction may be a direction that is strictly perpendicular to the retina, or the direction of the cross-sectional image obtained by the optical coherence tomography may deviate from the direction that is strictly perpendicular to the retina. It may include a direction deviated from a perpendicular direction as much as possible. A method by which the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 acquires blood vessel information will be described later. Note that the value indicated by the blood vessel information may be an average of a plurality of values or may not be so. For example, the blood vessel information may be an average of all values, or may be an average of N values selected in order from the largest. N is an integer of 2 or more. For example, the blood vessel information may be an average of M1 values measured on the nose side and M2 values measured on the ear side. M1 and M2 are integers of 1 or more, respectively. For example, M1 = M2 = 1 may be set. Further, when the blood vessel information is the wall thickness of the artery or vein of the retina, the wall thickness may be calculated using the outer diameter and inner diameter of the blood vessel. Specifically, wall thickness = (outer diameter−inner diameter) / 2 may be calculated.
The blood vessel information receiving unit 13 receives blood vessel information. The blood vessel information is acquired by the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12.

  The storage unit 14 stores blood vessel age-related information. The blood vessel age relationship information is information indicating the relationship between blood vessel information and age. The relationship between the blood vessel information indicated by the blood vessel age relationship information and the age is obtained from the measurement results of a plurality of subjects without eye diseases. In addition, the experimental result regarding the relationship between blood vessel information and age will be described later. The blood vessel age-related information may be information that can specify the age from the blood vessel information. The blood vessel age related information may be, for example, information in a table that associates blood vessel information and age, or may be a function that uses blood vessel information as an argument.

  In addition, the process in which the blood vessel age-related information is stored in the storage unit 14 does not matter. For example, the blood vessel age related information may be stored in the storage unit 14 via a recording medium, and the blood vessel age related information transmitted via a communication line or the like is stored in the storage unit 14. Alternatively, the blood vessel age-related information input via the input device may be stored in the storage unit 14. The storage in the storage unit 14 may be temporary storage in a RAM or the like, or may be long-term storage. The storage unit 14 can be realized by a predetermined recording medium (for example, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc.).

  The acquisition unit 15 acquires the blood vessel age, which is the age corresponding to the blood vessel information received by the blood vessel information receiving unit 13, using the blood vessel age related information stored in the storage unit 14. This blood vessel age may be an integer or a real number, for example. For example, when the blood vessel age-related information is information that associates blood vessel information with age, the acquisition unit 15 can acquire the age by reading the age corresponding to the blood vessel information. When the blood vessel age relationship information is a function, the acquisition unit 15 can acquire the age by calculating a function value for the blood vessel information.

  The blood vessel age output unit 16 outputs the blood vessel age acquired by the acquisition unit 15. Here, the output may be, for example, display on a display device (for example, a CRT or a liquid crystal display), transmission via a communication line to a predetermined device, printing by a printer, or audio output by a speaker. Alternatively, it may be stored in a recording medium or delivered to another component. In the present embodiment, the case where the blood vessel age output unit 16 accumulates the blood vessel age in the blood vessel age storage unit 17 will be mainly described. The blood vessel age output unit 16 may or may not include an output device (for example, a display device or a printer). The blood vessel age output unit 16 may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by software such as a driver that drives these devices.

  The blood vessel age is stored in the blood vessel age storage unit 17. The blood vessel age is accumulated by the blood vessel age output unit 16. The storage in the blood vessel age storage unit 17 may be temporary storage in a RAM or the like, or may be long-term storage. The blood vessel age storage unit 17 can be realized by a predetermined recording medium (for example, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc.).

  The real age reception unit 18 receives the actual age of the subject. This real age is usually an integer of 0 or more, but may be a real number of 0 or more. The test subject is a test subject corresponding to the blood vessel information used in acquiring the blood vessel age stored in the blood vessel age storage unit 17. The subject corresponding to the blood vessel information is a person whose cross-sectional image used for acquiring blood vessel information has been scanned. The real age reception unit 18 may receive the real age input from an input device (for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, etc.), for example, and receives the real age transmitted via a wired or wireless communication line. Alternatively, the actual age read from a predetermined recording medium (for example, an optical disk, a magnetic disk, a semiconductor memory, etc.) may be received. The real age reception unit 18 may or may not include a device (for example, a modem or a network card) for reception. Moreover, the real age reception part 18 may be implement | achieved by hardware, or may be implement | achieved by software, such as a driver which drives a predetermined device.

  The function value calculation unit 19 uses the blood vessel age output by the blood vessel age output unit 16 and the actual age received by the real age reception unit 18 as an argument, and the value increases as the difference between the two ages increases. The value of the function is calculated. The function that increases as the difference between the two ages increases, for example, may be a function that increases as the difference between the two ages increases only when “blood vessel age> actual age”, or “ In both cases of “blood vessel age> actual age” and “blood vessel age <actual age”, the function may be such that the value increases as the difference between the two ages increases. In the present embodiment, the former case will be mainly described. The function may be a function that increases in value as the age difference obtained by subtracting the actual age received by the actual age receiving unit 18 from the vascular age output by the vascular age output unit 16, or It may be a function that increases as the ratio with the actual age increases. The ratio between the blood vessel age and the actual age may be, for example, “vascular age / actual age” or “actual age / vascular age”. In the present embodiment, a case where the function value calculation unit 19 calculates a function value that increases as the age difference obtained by subtracting the actual age from the blood vessel age increases will be mainly described. Therefore, when the actual age is greater than the vascular age, the age difference becomes a negative value, and therefore, the value of the function is a smaller value than when the vascular age is greater than the actual age. The function is a function for calculating a value corresponding to the blood vessel change of the subject. It can be considered that the value according to the blood vessel change can be determined according to the severity of some disease, for example.

  The function value output unit 20 outputs the value of the function calculated by the function value calculation unit 19. Here, the output may be, for example, display on a display device (for example, a CRT or a liquid crystal display), transmission via a communication line to a predetermined device, printing by a printer, or audio output by a speaker. Alternatively, it may be stored in a recording medium or delivered to another component. The function value output unit 20 may or may not include an output device (for example, a display device or a printer). The function value output unit 20 may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by software such as a driver that drives these devices.

  Of the image storage unit 11, the storage unit 14, and the blood vessel age storage unit 17, any two or more storage units may be realized by the same recording medium or by different recording media. May be. In the former case, for example, the region storing the cross-sectional image is the image storage unit 11, and the region storing the blood vessel age-related information is the storage unit 14.

Next, the operation from when the blood vessel age output device 1 acquires blood vessel information until it outputs a function value will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
(Step S <b> 101) The blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 acquires blood vessel information using the cross-sectional image stored in the image storage unit 11.

  (Step S102) The blood vessel information receiving unit 13 receives the blood vessel information acquired by the blood vessel information acquiring unit 12.

  (Step S <b> 103) The acquiring unit 15 acquires the blood vessel age that is the age corresponding to the blood vessel information received by the blood vessel information receiving unit 13 using the blood vessel age related information stored in the storage unit 14.

  (Step S104) The blood vessel age output unit 16 outputs the blood vessel age acquired by the acquisition unit 15. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the blood vessel age is accumulated in the blood vessel age storage unit 17 as described above.

  (Step S105) The real age receiving unit 18 determines whether the real age has been received. If the actual age is accepted, the process proceeds to step S106. If not, the process of step S105 is repeated until the actual age is accepted. In addition, before the real age reception part 18 receives real age, the output for requesting input of real age, for example, the display of the text "Please input real age", etc. may be performed. In addition, after such an output, if a real age is not input even after a predetermined period has elapsed, a series of processing may be terminated assuming that a timeout has occurred.

  (Step S106) The function value calculation unit 19 calculates a function value using the blood vessel age stored in the blood vessel age storage unit 17 and the actual age received by the actual age reception unit 18.

  (Step S107) The function value output unit 20 outputs the function value calculated by the function value calculation unit 19. By this output, the subject and the doctor who diagnoses the subject can know the degree of deviation between the blood vessel age and the actual age. Then, a series of processing until the function value is output is completed.

  In the flowchart of FIG. 2, the timing of accepting the actual age is not limited as long as it is accepted before the calculation of the function value. For example, you may accept real age before performing the process of step S101.

Next, a method for measuring the outer diameter of the artery, the artery wall thickness, and the vein wall thickness from the cross-sectional image will be described. FIG. 3A is a fundus image. The result of scanning with the optical coherence tomography as shown by the circle in FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional image shown in FIG. 3B. In FIG. 3B, the vertical direction in the figure is the direction perpendicular to the retina. The cross-sectional image of FIG. 3C is an enlarged view of the portion indicated by the white rectangle in FIG. 3B. In FIG. 3C, the region of the blood vessel has four portions with high reflection intensity (high luminance portions) along a direction perpendicular to the retina (vertical direction in FIG. 3C). The part with the highest reflection intensity on the front side (that is, the upper side in the figure) and the part with the highest reflection intensity on the back side (that is, the lower side in the figure) correspond to the blood vessel wall and are sandwiched between them. The two hourglass-like portions with high reflection intensity are locations where blood flows. In general, the artery has a larger blood vessel wall thickness than the vein. Therefore, the artery and the vein can be distinguished according to the size of the wall thickness. As shown in FIG. 3C, the outer diameter of the artery (OAD: Outer Arterial Diameter) is measured for the artery, The inner diameter (IAD: Inner Arterial Diameter) can be measured. In addition, for veins, the outer diameter of the vein (OVD) can be measured, and the inner diameter of the vein (IVD: Inner Venous Diameter) can be measured. The artery wall thickness and vein wall thickness can be calculated as follows.
Arterial wall thickness = (outer diameter of artery-inner diameter of artery) / 2
Venous wall thickness = (Venous outer diameter-Venous inner diameter) / 2

  In FIG. 3C, the arterial wall thickness and the venous wall thickness may be directly measured. However, since the outer diameter and the inner diameter are usually larger than the wall thickness of the blood vessel, the wall thickness is determined using the outer diameter and the inner diameter. It is considered preferable to calculate the value because the error is reduced. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the case where the wall thickness is calculated using the outer diameter and inner diameter of the blood vessel will be mainly described.

Next, a method in which the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 acquires blood vessel information from a cross-sectional image will be described. The blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 determines whether or not the change in the reflection intensity in the direction perpendicular to the retina (vertical direction in FIG. 3B) satisfies the condition indicating that it is a blood vessel in the cross-sectional image shown in FIG. This is sequentially performed along the scanning direction of FIG. 3A, that is, the left-right direction of FIG. 3B. FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing the vicinity of an artery in a cross-sectional image. In FIG. 4, a direction V1 is a direction perpendicular to the retina, and a direction V2 is a circle direction. Then, the change in the reflection intensity on the line indicated by the broken line is as shown in FIG. The blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 acquires, as shown in FIG. 5, the lengths L1 to L4 of four continuous high reflection intensity regions in the reflection intensity change. Then, it is determined whether or not the four lengths satisfy the following conditions 1 to 3. Then, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 determines that the position is a blood vessel when the conditions 1 to 3 are satisfied, and determines that the position is not a blood vessel when the conditions 1 to 3 are not satisfied.
Condition 1: | L4-L1 | <α × L1
Condition 2: | L3-L2 | <β × L2
Condition 3: L1 × γ <L2
Here, α, β, and γ are predetermined parameters, respectively. α and β are real numbers larger than 0 and smaller than 1, respectively. Γ is a real number larger than 1.

  When Condition 1 is satisfied, L1 and L4 match within an error range of α × L1. Further, when the condition 2 is satisfied, L2 and L3 coincide with each other within an error range of β × L2. When Condition 3 is satisfied, L2 is larger than γ times L1. α, β, and γ may be, for example, α = β = 0.2, γ = 2, or other values.

  When there are five or more regions having high reflection intensity in a direction perpendicular to the retina at a position where the cross-sectional image is present, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 performs the above-described conditions for each set of four consecutive regions. Judge whether or not to meet. If the condition is found for any of the sets, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 determines that there is a blood vessel at that position. Then, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 measures the blood vessel outer diameter (OD) and the blood vessel inner diameter (ID) as shown in FIG. 4 in the blood vessel region that is the region where it is determined that there is the blood vessel. These values are preferably measured, for example, near the center of the blood vessel width direction (direction V2 in FIG. 4). Then, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 acquires the wall thickness by calculating (blood vessel outer diameter−blood vessel inner diameter) / 2 for each blood vessel. Further, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 specifies the K wall thicknesses from the larger one and the K wall thicknesses from the smaller one of the acquired wall thicknesses, and averages these 2 × K wall thicknesses. And a blood vessel having a wall thickness larger than the average value may be determined as an artery, and a blood vessel having a wall thickness smaller than the average value may be determined as a vein. K is an integer of 1 or more. In this way, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 can acquire the outer diameter of the artery and the artery wall thickness for each artery, and can acquire the vein wall thickness for each vein. That is, for a blood vessel determined to be an artery, the blood vessel outer diameter (OD) becomes the artery outer diameter (OAD), and the blood vessel inner diameter (ID) becomes the artery inner diameter (IAD). For blood vessels determined to be veins, the blood vessel outer diameter (OD) is the vein outer diameter (OVD), and the blood vessel inner diameter (ID) is the vein inner diameter (IVD). When the blood vessel information is the outer diameter of the artery, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 may use an average of N values sequentially selected from the larger outer diameter of the artery as the blood vessel information. When the blood vessel information is the artery wall thickness, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 may use the average of N values sequentially selected from the larger one of the artery wall thicknesses as the blood vessel information. Further, when the blood vessel information is the vein wall thickness, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 may use the average of N values selected in order from the larger of the vein wall thicknesses as the blood vessel information.

  Here, the case where the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 calculates all of the artery outer diameter, the artery wall thickness, and the vein wall thickness has been described, but this need not be the case. Since the blood vessel information is one of those three values, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 may calculate only a predetermined value.

  In addition, here, the case where the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 distinguishes between an artery and a vein using the width of the blood vessel has been described, but this need not be the case. For example, in a cross-sectional image acquired by an optical coherence tomography, the arterial wall usually has higher reflection intensity than the vein wall (see, for example, FIG. 3C). Therefore, the arterial and the vein may be distinguished using the reflection intensity of the blood vessel wall in the cross-sectional image.

  Needless to say, the method by which the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 acquires blood vessel information is not limited to the method described above. As a result, as long as blood vessel information regarding the vertical direction of the retina can be acquired from the cross-sectional image of the vertical direction of the retina, methods other than those described above may be used. Since the blood vessel cross section has a shape as shown in FIG. 4, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 specifies a region of the blood vessel cross section by, for example, pattern matching, and the outer diameter, the inner diameter, and the width May be measured.

Next, the relationship between blood vessel information and age will be described. The inventors of the present invention have used 53 coexisting eyes of 53 healthy subjects without eye disease, using an optical coherence tomography, the inner diameter of the artery, the outer diameter of the artery, the thickness of the artery wall, the inner diameter of the vein in the vertical direction of the retina. The vein outer diameter and vein wall thickness were measured. The optical coherence tomography used in the measurement is Spectraris HRA + OCT manufactured by Heidelberg Engineering. Moreover, the acquisition of the cross-sectional image by the optical coherence tomography was performed by a circle scan with a radius of 1.73 (mm) centering on the optic disc. Each measured value by the measurement is the average of the selected four values by selecting the four largest values for each subject. Information about the subject is as follows. The numerical values following ± are standard deviations.
Gender (Female / Male): 18/35
Age range (years): 8-80
Average age (years): 53.1 ± 18.5
High blood pressure (+/-): 22/31
Diabetes (+/-): 5/48
Refractive error average: -1.42 ± 1.88
Average of keratometer (mm): 7.64 ± 0.27
Average of axial length (mm): 24.0 ± 1.5

  6A to 6F are graphs showing the relationship between the age and the inner diameter of the artery using the measurement results of the 53 eyes of the 53 subjects described above. Note that R in the graph is a correlation coefficient between the age and the inner diameter of the artery, and P is a P value of the correlation coefficient. As can be seen from FIGS. 6A to 6F, the outer diameter of the artery, the artery wall thickness, and the vein wall thickness are correlated with age. Moreover, about those, since P value is less than 0.05, it is thought that it is statistically significant. In particular, the arterial wall thickness has a correlation coefficient exceeding 0.8, indicating a high correlation with age. Therefore, in the blood vessel age output device 1 according to the present embodiment, the blood vessel age is calculated using any one of the outer diameter of the artery, the artery wall thickness, and the vein wall thickness as the blood vessel information. Note that the storage unit 14 may store a function indicating a straight line graph shown in FIG. 6B, FIG. 6C, or FIG. 6F, that is, a function having an artery outer diameter or the like as an argument.

  Next, reproducibility in the case of measuring the arterial wall thickness in the direction perpendicular to the retina from a cross-sectional image acquired by an optical coherence tomography will be described. Here, (1) reproducibility between different shooting days, (2) reproducibility between different photographers, and (3) reproducibility between different measurers were confirmed using intra-class correlation coefficients. The photographer is a person who acquires a cross-sectional image, and the measurer is a person who measures the outer diameter and inner diameter of a blood vessel from the cross-sectional image. The intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated for each subject using one artery and one vein randomly selected from four arteries and four veins. The measurement was performed on the inner diameter and outer diameter of each of the artery and vein.

(1) Intra-class correlation coefficient for different shooting days For the 18 subjects, the same photographer calculates the intra-class correlation coefficient using the measurement results measured by the same measurer from cross-sectional images taken on different days. did. The interval between the two shooting days is 2 weeks to 3 months.
(2) Intra-class correlation coefficient between different photographers For 15 subjects, different photographers used the measurement results measured by the same measurer from cross-sectional images taken on the same day. Calculated.
(3) Intraclass correlation coefficient between different measurers For all 53 subjects, the intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated from the cross-sectional images taken by the same photographer, using the measurement results measured by different measurers. .

The results of intra-class correlation coefficients (1) to (3) were as follows.
(1) (2) (3)
Arterial inner diameter 0.947 0.964 0.980
Venous inner diameter 0.974 0.946 0.967
Arterial outer diameter 0.936 0.904 0.957
Venous outer diameter 0.953 0.958 0.967

  From the above results, it can be seen that all the intra-class correlation coefficients are larger than 0.9 and there is a high correlation. Therefore, it was confirmed that the measurement of the blood vessels in the vertical direction of the retina using the optical coherence tomography is highly reproducible and sufficiently reliable.

Next, operation | movement of the blood vessel age output apparatus 1 by this Embodiment is demonstrated using a specific example. In this specific example, the blood vessel information is assumed to be a value indicating the artery wall thickness. Specifically, it is assumed that the blood vessel information is a value obtained by averaging four values from the larger one of the artery wall thicknesses. In addition, it is assumed that the image storage unit 11 stores a cross-sectional image “P001.jpeg” of the subject U001 acquired by performing a circle scan using an optical coherence tomography. Further, it is assumed that the storage unit 14 stores the following function indicating the relationship between the artery wall thickness, which is blood vessel information, and the blood vessel age. A and B are values determined by experiments.
(Blood vessel age) = A × (arterial wall thickness) + B

Further, in this specific example, it is assumed that the function value calculation unit 19 stores the following function indicating severity by using the blood vessel age and the actual age as arguments. C is a value set as appropriate. The severity indicates that the greater the value is, the more severe it is.
(Severity) = C × {(vascular age) − (actual age)}

  First, when the blood vessel age output apparatus 1 accepts an instruction to acquire the blood vessel age, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 reads the cross-sectional image “P001.jpeg” stored in the image storage unit 11 and reads the cross-sectional image of the cross-sectional image. The region of the blood vessel is specified by sequentially judging whether or not the change in the reflection intensity in the direction perpendicular to the retina satisfies the above-described conditions 1 to 3 along the direction of the circle scan. Then, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 calculates each blood vessel wall thickness for the specified blood vessel region. Further, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 specifies two wall thicknesses in order from the larger one of the blood vessel wall thicknesses, specifies the two wall thicknesses in order from the smaller one, and calculates an average value thereof. . Thereafter, the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12 specifies four wall thicknesses in order from the larger one for the artery that is a blood vessel having a wall thickness larger than the average value, and the average value “D1” of the four specified wall thicknesses. ”Is calculated and passed to the blood vessel information receiving unit 13 (step S101). Upon receiving the blood vessel information “D1”, the blood vessel information receiving unit 13 passes it to the acquiring unit 15 (step S102). Upon receiving the blood vessel information “D1”, the acquisition unit 15 reads the above-described function from the storage unit 14 to calculate A × D1 + B, and passes the blood vessel age “BVA” that is the calculation result to the blood vessel age output unit 16. (Step S103). The blood vessel age “BVA” is accumulated in the blood vessel age storage unit 17 by the blood vessel age output unit 16 (step S104).

  Thereafter, the blood vessel age output device 1 performs display for prompting the input of the actual age of the subject U001 using a monitor (not shown). In response to the display, when the operator of the blood vessel age output device 1 inputs the actual age “RA” of the subject U001 using the numeric keypad, the actual age “RA” is received by the actual age receiving unit 18 and the function value is calculated. Is passed to the unit 19 (step S105). When the function value calculation unit 19 receives the actual age “RA”, the function value calculation unit 19 reads the blood vessel age “BVA” stored in the blood vessel age storage unit 17 and calculates C × (BVA-RA), which is the calculation result. The severity “SD” is passed to the function value output unit 20 (step S106). Upon receiving the severity “SD”, the function value output unit 20 displays the severity on a monitor (not shown) of the blood vessel age output device 1 (step S107). As a result, the operator of the blood vessel age output device 1 can know the severity of the disease or the like related to the subject U001 obtained from the blood vessel information.

  In this specific example, the case where the actual age is input using the numeric keypad has been described. However, it is needless to say that the actual age may be read out from a subject database stored in a recording medium (not shown) in advance. .

  When two or more cross-sectional images are stored in the image storage unit 11, blood vessel information may be acquired for the selected cross-sectional image. The selection may be performed manually by an operator, for example, or a cross-sectional image associated with the subject's ID is stored in advance, and the cross-section corresponding to the subject's ID input by the operator or the like is stored. The image may be automatically selected.

  As described above, according to the blood vessel age output device 1 according to the present embodiment, the blood vessel age is output using the blood vessel information including the artery outer diameter, the artery wall thickness, and the vein wall thickness in the direction perpendicular to the retina. Can do. Also, by calculating and outputting a function value indicating the degree of deviation between the blood vessel age and the actual age, the degree of deviation between the two ages can be known, and the degree of health of the subject can be inferred. It becomes like this. In addition, since the blood vessel age can be calculated non-invasively, there is also an advantage that the burden on the subject is light. Conventionally, fundus images taken by a fundus camera are also used in various diagnoses and the like, but in the case of fundus images, the color contrast of the artery may be lowered, and as a result, the direction parallel to the retina It was sometimes difficult to measure the blood vessel diameter. In particular, as the age increases, the arterial wall becomes more whitish, which becomes more prominent. On the other hand, in the case of a cross-sectional image obtained using an optical coherence tomography, the arterial wall has a higher reflection intensity than the vein wall, and therefore it is easier to detect the blood vessel boundary.

  In the present embodiment, a case has been described in which blood vessel information is automatically acquired from a cross-sectional image acquired by an optical coherence tomography. However, this need not be the case. The blood vessel age may be acquired using the blood vessel information manually acquired from the cross-sectional image. In that case, the blood vessel age output device 1 may not include the image storage unit 11 and the blood vessel information acquisition unit 12. In that case, for example, the blood vessel information receiving unit 13 may receive blood vessel information input from an input device (for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, etc.), and transmits the information via a wired or wireless communication line. The received blood vessel information may be received, or blood vessel information read from a predetermined recording medium (for example, an optical disk, a magnetic disk, a semiconductor memory, etc.) may be received. The blood vessel information receiving unit 13 may or may not include a device for receiving (for example, a modem or a network card). The blood vessel information receiving unit 13 may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by software such as a driver that drives a predetermined device.

  In the present embodiment, the case has been described in which the blood vessel information receiving unit 13 receives blood vessel information measured using an optical coherence tomography, but this need not be the case. When the arterial outer diameter, artery wall thickness, vein wall thickness, etc. in the vertical direction of the retina can be measured using a device other than the optical coherence tomometer, the blood vessel information receiving unit 13 may receive the blood vessel information as the measurement result. Good.

  Further, in the present embodiment, a case has been described in which the function value indicating the degree of deviation between the two ages is calculated using the blood vessel age and the actual age, but this need not be the case. When the function value is not calculated, the blood vessel age output device 1 may not include the actual age reception unit 18, the function value calculation unit 19, and the function value output unit 20. In that case, the blood vessel age output unit 16 may display, transmit, output audio, or print the blood vessel age.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the blood vessel age output device 1 is a stand-alone device has been described. However, the blood vessel age output device 1 may be a stand-alone device or a server device in a server / client system. Good. In the latter case, the output unit or the reception unit may receive input or output information via a communication line.

  In the above embodiment, each process or each function may be realized by centralized processing by a single device or a single system, or may be distributedly processed by a plurality of devices or a plurality of systems. It may be realized by doing.

  In the above embodiment, the information exchange between the components is performed by one component when, for example, the two components that exchange the information are physically different from each other. It may be performed by outputting information and receiving information by the other component, or when two components that exchange information are physically the same, one component May be performed by moving from the phase of the process corresponding to to the phase of the process corresponding to the other component.

  In the above embodiment, information related to processing executed by each component, for example, information received, acquired, selected, generated, transmitted, or received by each component In addition, information such as threshold values, functions, addresses, etc. used by the respective components in processing is held temporarily or for a long time on a recording medium (not shown) even when not explicitly stated in the above description. It may be. Further, the storage of information in the recording medium (not shown) may be performed by each component or a storage unit (not shown). Further, reading of information from the recording medium (not shown) may be performed by each component or a reading unit (not shown).

  Further, in the above embodiment, information used by each component, for example, information such as threshold values and addresses used by each component in processing, various setting values, parameters, etc. may be changed by the user However, even if it is not specified in the above description, the user may be able to change the information as appropriate, or it may not be. If the information can be changed by the user, the change is realized by, for example, a not-shown receiving unit that receives a change instruction from the user and a changing unit (not shown) that changes the information in accordance with the change instruction. May be. The change instruction received by the receiving unit (not shown) may be received from an input device, information received via a communication line, or information read from a predetermined recording medium, for example. .

  In the above embodiment, when two or more components included in the blood vessel age output apparatus 1 have communication devices, input devices, etc., the two or more components have a physically single device. Or may have separate devices.

  In the above embodiment, each component may be configured by dedicated hardware, or a component that can be realized by software may be realized by executing a program. For example, each component can be realized by a program execution unit such as a CPU reading and executing a software program recorded on a recording medium such as a hard disk or a semiconductor memory. At the time of execution, the program execution unit may execute the program while accessing the storage unit or the recording medium. In addition, the software which implement | achieves the blood vessel age output apparatus 1 in the said embodiment is the following programs. In other words, this program shows the relationship between the blood vessel information, which is one of the values of the outer diameter of the artery in the vertical direction of the retina, the thickness of the arterial wall in the vertical direction of the retina, and the thickness of the vein wall in the vertical direction of the retina, and age. The blood vessel information received by the blood vessel information receiving unit using the blood vessel age receiving information stored in the blood vessel information receiving unit that receives the blood vessel information, the blood vessel information receiving unit that receives the blood vessel information, and a computer that can access the storage unit storing the blood vessel age related information It is a program for functioning as a blood vessel age output unit that outputs the blood vessel age acquired by the acquisition unit and the blood vessel age acquired by the acquisition unit.

  In the program, the functions realized by the program do not include functions that can be realized only by hardware. For example, the functions that can be realized only by hardware such as a modem and an interface card in the reception unit that receives information, the acquisition unit that acquires information, and the output unit that outputs information are included in at least the functions realized by the program. Absent.

  Further, this program may be executed by being downloaded from a server or the like, and a program recorded on a predetermined recording medium (for example, an optical disk such as a CD-ROM, a magnetic disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like) is read out. May be executed by Further, this program may be used as a program constituting a program product.

  Further, the computer that executes this program may be singular or plural. That is, centralized processing may be performed, or distributed processing may be performed.

  FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the external appearance of a computer that executes the program and realizes the blood vessel age output device 1 according to the embodiment. The above-described embodiment can be realized by computer hardware and a computer program executed on the computer hardware.

  In FIG. 7, a computer system 900 includes a computer 901 including a CD-ROM drive 905 and an FD (Floppy (registered trademark) Disk) drive 906, a keyboard 902, a mouse 903, and a monitor 904.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of the computer system 900. In FIG. 8, in addition to the CD-ROM drive 905 and the FD drive 906, a computer 901 is connected to an MPU (Micro Processing Unit) 911, a ROM 912 for storing a program such as a bootup program, and the MPU 911. A RAM 913 that temporarily stores program instructions and provides a temporary storage space, a hard disk 914 that stores application programs, system programs, and data, and a bus 915 that interconnects the MPU 911, the ROM 912, and the like are provided. The computer 901 may include a network card (not shown) that provides connection to a LAN, WAN, or the like.

  A program for causing the computer system 900 to execute the function of the vascular age output device 1 according to the above-described embodiment is stored in the CD-ROM 921 or the FD 922, inserted into the CD-ROM drive 905 or the FD drive 906, and the hard disk 914. May be forwarded to. Instead, the program may be transmitted to the computer 901 via a network (not shown) and stored in the hard disk 914. The program is loaded into the RAM 913 when executed. The program may be loaded directly from the CD-ROM 921, the FD 922, or the network.

  The program does not necessarily include an operating system (OS) or a third-party program that causes the computer 901 to execute the functions of the blood vessel age output device 1 according to the above-described embodiment. The program may include only a part of an instruction that calls an appropriate function (module) in a controlled manner and obtains a desired result. How the computer system 900 operates is well known and will not be described in detail.

  Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible, and it goes without saying that these are also included in the scope of the present invention.

  As described above, according to the blood vessel age output device or the like according to the present invention, an effect that the blood vessel age of the subject can be obtained using information related to the blood vessels in the vertical direction of the retina can be obtained, which is useful as a device for outputting the blood vessel age. .

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Blood vessel age output apparatus 11 Image memory | storage part 12 Blood vessel information acquisition part 13 Blood vessel information reception part 14 Storage part 15 Acquisition part 16 Blood vessel age output part 17 Blood vessel age memory | storage part 18 Real age reception part 19 Function value calculation part 20 Function value output part

Claims (8)

Vertical arterial wall thickness of retinal, and Ri any value Der vertical vein wall thickness of the retina is measured using the optical coherence tomography, and calculated using the outer diameter and the inner diameter of the blood vessel and the blood vessel information receiving unit that receives a blood vessel information that will be,
A storage unit storing blood vessel age relationship information indicating a relationship between blood vessel information and age;
Using the blood vessel age relationship information stored in the storage unit, an acquisition unit that acquires a blood vessel age that is an age corresponding to the blood vessel information received by the blood vessel information receiving unit;
A blood vessel age output device comprising: a blood vessel age output unit that outputs the blood vessel age acquired by the acquisition unit. A real age reception unit for receiving the real age of the subject;
Using the blood vessel age output by the blood vessel age output unit and the actual age received by the real age receiving unit, using both ages as an argument, a value of a function that increases as the difference between the two ages increases is calculated. A function value calculator,
A function value output unit for outputting the calculated value of the function of the function value calculation unit, further comprising a claim 1 Symbol placement of vascular age output device. The blood vessel age output according to claim 2 , wherein the function is a function that increases in value as the age difference obtained by subtracting the actual age received by the actual age receiving unit from the blood vessel age output by the blood vessel age output unit is increased. apparatus. An image storage unit for storing a cross-sectional image of a blood vessel of the retina acquired by an optical coherence tomography;
A blood vessel information acquisition unit for acquiring blood vessel information using the cross-sectional image stored in the image storage unit,
The blood vessel age output device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the blood vessel information receiving unit receives blood vessel information acquired by the blood vessel information acquiring unit. The blood vessel information is a wall thickness in the vertical direction of the arteries of the retina, vascular age output device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. The blood vessel age output device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , wherein the blood vessel information is an average value of two or more measured values. And the blood vessel information receiving unit, a vertical direction of the artery wall thickness of retinal, and any value Der vertical vein wall thickness of the retina is, measured using an optical coherence tomography, and the outer diameter of the blood vessel and a blood vessel information that will be calculated using the inner diameter, and a storage unit for vascular age relation information showing the relation between age are stored, an acquisition unit, in vascular age output method to be processed by using the blood vessel age output unit There,
A blood vessel information receiving step for receiving blood vessel information;
The acquisition unit acquires a blood vessel age that is an age corresponding to the blood vessel information received in the blood vessel information receiving step using the blood vessel age related information stored in the storage unit;
A blood vessel age output method comprising: a blood vessel age output step in which the blood vessel age output unit outputs the blood vessel age acquired in the acquisition step. Vertical arterial wall thickness of retinal, and Ri any value Der vertical vein wall thickness of the retina is measured using the optical coherence tomography, and calculated using the outer diameter and the inner diameter of the blood vessel a blood vessel information that will be, accessible computer in a storage section blood vessel age related information is stored that indicates the relationship between the age,
A blood vessel information receiving unit for receiving blood vessel information;
An acquisition unit that acquires a blood vessel age that is an age according to blood vessel information received by the blood vessel information receiving unit, using the blood vessel age-related information stored in the storage unit;
The program for functioning as a blood vessel age output part which outputs the blood vessel age which the said acquisition part acquired.