Patent Application
20100123714
This invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for presentation of quantitative measurements in a 4D rendering. The methods and apparatus are particularly useful in medical imaging.
New medical imaging technology permits regional quantitative 4D analysis of objects, such as the myocardium of a patient's heart. The regional quantitative 4D analysis provides detailed information on the motion and deformation of all material points in the object. However, with this new imaging technology, there is a need for new display methods and apparatuses. For example, there is a need for an intuitive display where a quantitative parameter is mapped directly to 3D anatomy. At least one known method for mapping parameters directly to 3D anatomy includes slicing of data and projecting the parameters onto a 2D image or projecting parametric data onto a surface model. This method simplifies the display of quantitative data, but does so at a cost of losing available detailed morphology information and visual perception of motion and deformation.
Thus, it will be beneficial to have a method and system for displaying regional quantitative parameters on a surface model of a 3D anatomy while retaining the visual perception of motion and deformation.
In one aspect, some embodiments of the present invention provide a method of visually enhancing display of motion in a 4D presentation of an object. The method comprises: identifying a region of interest at a point in time in a volumetric image data. Then, the following steps are iterated to produce a 4D surface rendering. The iterated steps include: tracking the region of interest of the volumetric image data to produce a displacement field; applying a texture on to a surface defined from the region of interest; and surface rendering the surface with reference to the displacement field.
In another aspect, some embodiments of the present invention provide a method of enhancing display of myocardial motion in a 3D surface rendering. The method comprises: obtaining a volumetric cardiac image; and identifying myocardial walls from the cardiac image. Then, the following steps are iterated to display myocardial motion in a 3D surface rendering. The iterated steps include: tracking the myocardial walls to identify the myocardial motion; identifying at least one regional quantitative parameter in relation to the myocardial motion; applying a texture to a surface of the myocardial walls with reference to the identified myocardial motion; superimposing the regional quantitative parameter into the texture in the form of color codes; and surface rendering the textured color coded surface.
In another aspect, some embodiments of the present invention provide a method for combined 4D presentation of quantitative measurements of an object. The method comprises: receiving a surface of a region of interest of a volumetric image of an object, the volumetric image being obtained by a first imaging system and aligning the surface obtained from the first imaging system with reference to the volumetric images obtained from a second imaging system. The following steps are iterated to display a combined 4D presentation of quantitative measurements of an object. The iterated steps includes: identifying a displacement field corresponding to motion of the region of interest from volumetric images of a similar object obtained by the second imaging system; applying color coded texture representing quantitative regional parameters onto the surface with reference to the displacement field; and surface rendering the surface and displaying the surface rendered image.
In another aspect, some embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus that includes: a computer or processor, memory, and a display. The apparatus is configured to identify a region of interest of an object in volumetric image data. The apparatus further comprises: a tracking module configured to track the region of interest in an object to produce a displacement field; a quantitative analysis module configured to apply a color coded texture representing at least one regional quantitative parameter to surface of the volumetric image data; and a surface rendering module configured to render the surface from the volumetric image data to produce a surface rendering; wherein the tracking module, the quantitative analysis module and surface rendering module are configured to operate iteratively to thereby produce a visually enhanced 4D surface rendering representing at least one quantitative regional parameter.
In yet another aspect, some embodiments of the present invention provide a machine-readable medium or media having recorded thereon instructions configured to instruct an apparatus that comprises a computer or processor, memory, and a display. The media comprises: a routine for tracking an identified region of interest of a volumetric moving image data to produce a displacement field; a routine for applying a color coded texture representing at least one quantitative regional parameter onto a surface with reference to the displacement field, the surface being defined from the region of interest; and a routine for surface rendering the surface.
The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of certain embodiments of the present invention, will be better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. To the extent that the figures illustrate diagrams of the functional blocks of various embodiments, the functional blocks are not necessarily indicative of the division between hardware circuitry. Thus, for example, one or more of the functional blocks (e.g., processors or memories) may be implemented in a single piece of hardware (e.g., a general purpose signal processor or a block of random access memory, hard disk, or the like). Similarly, the programs may be stand alone programs, may be incorporated as subroutines in an operating system, may be functions in an installed software package, and the like. It should be understood that the various embodiments are not limited to the arrangements and instrumentality shown in the drawings.
As used herein, an element or step recited in the singular and proceeded with the word “a” or “an” should be understood as not excluding plural elements or steps, unless such exclusion is explicitly stated. Furthermore, references to “one embodiment” of the present invention are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features. Moreover, unless explicitly stated to the contrary, embodiments “comprising” or “having” an element or a plurality of elements having a particular property may include additional such elements not having that property. Moreover, the terms “computer” and “processor” are used interchangeably herein to refer to either specialized hardware to perform digital signal processing, control, data manipulation, and/or calculations, or a general purpose computer that can be programmed to perform the same functions and/or adapted to interface with external digital signals. The phrases “computer or processor” and “processor or computer” are therefore intended to have equal scope with either of the individual terms and are not intended to imply a dichotomy between the two terms.
Technical effects of embodiments of the present invention include providing an improved quantitative regional parameters display. Furthermore, some embodiments of the present invention facilitate using a texture on the surface of the image to generate a realistic view of the surface rendering. Also in some embodiments, quantitative regional parameters are identified and are superimposed on the texture as color codes. Thus surface rendering superimposed with a color-coded texture, representing the quantitative regional parameters, provides an enhanced display of 4D surface rendering.
In an embodiment, at least one quantitative regional parameter may be identified while tracking the region of interest. Some of the examples of the quantitative regional parameters include velocity, stress, strain, displacement etc. The quantitative regional parameters may vary based on the motion of the region of interest. For example, in a cardiac image, strain in the cardiac walls during different stages of cardiac cycle will be different. The quantitative regional parameters may be estimated at different stages and may be represented as color codes, so that these quantitative regional parameters can be identified easily. Thus, in some of the embodiments, the quantitative regional parameters are represented as color codes and the same is superimposed onto the texture or to the surface rendering. It is to be noted that the color codes may be superimposed onto the texture or the texture may be provided on the color codes. Thus, the workflow generates a 4D surface rendered image with texture having color codes representing at least one quantitative regional parameter.
In an embodiment, different textures, such as texture in the form of speckle pattern, texture looking like organ tissue, and texture based on renderings from any imaging modality, may be used. The imaging modality could include any imaging modality but need not be limited to modality using, which initially the volumetric images are acquired.
To display a medical image obtained using the probe 610, the processor 620 is provided with a software or firmware memory 622 containing instructions to perform image-processing techniques on the acquired raw medical image data. Although shown separately in
Software or firmware memory 622 can comprise a read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a miniature hard drive, a flash memory card, or any kind of device (or devices) configured to read instructions from a machine-readable medium or media. The instructions contained in software or firmware memory 622 further include instructions to produce a medical image of suitable resolution for display on display 640 and/or to send acquired raw or scan converted image data stored in a data memory 630 to an external device (not shown), such as a computer. The image data may be sent from the processor 620 to external device via a wired or wireless network (or direct connection, for example, via a serial or parallel cable or USB port) under control of the processor 620 and a user interface. In some embodiments, the external device may be a computer or a workstation having a display and memory. The user interface (which may also include display 640) also receives image data from a user and supplies the data to the processor 620. In some embodiments, display 640 may include an x-y input, such as a touch-sensitive surface and a stylus (not shown), to facilitate user input.
In an embodiment, the medical imaging system may be configured as a miniaturized device. As used herein, “miniaturized” means that the medical imaging system is a handheld or hand-carried device or is configured to be carried in a person's hand, briefcase-sized case, or backpack. For example, a medical imaging system may be a hand-carried device having a size of a typical laptop computer. In an example, the medical imaging system may be an ultrasound imaging system.
Embodiments of the present invention can comprise software or firmware instructing a computer to perform certain actions. Some embodiments of the present invention comprise stand-alone workstation computers that include memory, a display, and a processor. The workstation may also include a user input interface (which may include, for example, a mouse, a touch screen and stylus, a keyboard with cursor keys, or combinations thereof). The memory may include, for example, random access memory (RAM), flash memory, or read-only memory. For purposes of simplicity, devices that can read and/or write media on which computer programs are recorded are also included within the scope of the term “memory.” A non-exhaustive list of media that can be read with such a suitable device includes CDs, CD-RWs, DVDs of all types, magnetic media (including floppy disks, tape, and hard drives), flash memory in the form of sticks, cards, and other forms, ROMs, etc., and combinations thereof.
Some embodiments of the present invention may be incorporated into a medical imaging apparatus, such as ultrasound imaging system 600 of
In some embodiments of the present invention, the processor 620 includes a module (not shown) to identify the region of interest in volumetric image of an object. Alternately, the apparatus 600 may be configured to identify the region of interest. The region of interest may be identified manually or automatically. The processor 620 further includes modules that may be implemented within the processor or computer by a stored program and/or within special purpose hardware. These modules include a tracking module 624 configured to track a region of interest in image data to produce a displacement field. Also included is a quantitative analysis module 626 configured to extract at least one quantitative regional parameter from the displacement field and to apply the quantitative regional parameter or parameters as color-coded data onto the surface or surface rendering. A surface rendering module 628 is provided in association with the quantitative analysis module 626 and is configured to render the color coded surface to produce a visually enhanced surface rendering. The display 640 is configured to display the enhanced surface rendering. The tracking module 624, the quantitative analysis module 626, and the surface rendering module 628 are configured to operate iteratively to thereby produce an enhanced surface rendering displayed with at least one quantitative regional parameter embedded as color codes on the surface. Different modules referred shall be explained in detail with reference to
The displacement field 724 is provided to a quantitative analysis module 730. The quantitative analysis module 730 extracts at least one quantitative parameter from the displacement field 724. The quantitative analysis module 730 is further configured to convert the identified quantitative regional parameters into color codes and superimpose the same onto a texture 736. The texture 736 could be provided from a storage device 732 or a secondary imaging system 734. The color coded texture is superimposed onto the surface or to a surface rendering.
The volumetric image data 710, along with the displacement field 724, is provided to a surface rendering module 740. The surface rendering module 740 is further provided with a color coded texture. Alternately, the color-coded texture may be superimposed on to the surface identified from the volumetric image data 710, and the surface superimposed with the color coded texture may be fed to the surface rendering module 740 along with the displacement field 724. The volumetric image data 710 may also be provided from the image system or from the image-storing device. The volumetric image data 710 as used herein, may comprise any one or more of image data, synthetic image data, a secondary (or tertiary, etc.) modality of image data (for example, a CT or MRI image), and a cardiac model, or any other volumetric anatomical model. The volumetric image data 710, along with the displacement field 724, and the color coded texture is surface rendered by the surface rendering module 740 and an enhanced surface rendering 750 with at least one regional quantitative parameter superimposed on a texture as the color code is produced.
It should be noted that configurations of the present invention are not limited to cardiac applications or medical applications, in which case the data 710 to be displayed would be data representative of a different object having different displacement characteristics.
In yet other embodiments of the present invention, a machine readable medium or media may include, but is not limited to, magnetic disks and diskettes, optical disks and diskettes, and/or ROM, flash ROM, and/or battery backed RAM, or any other suitable magnetic, optical, or electronic medium or media. The medium (or media) has recorded thereon instructions configured to instruct an apparatus 600 that includes a computer or processor 620, memory 622, 630, and a display 640. The instructions include instructions for tracking an identified region of interest of a volumetric moving image data to produce a displacement field. The instruction further include instructions to apply a color coded texture representing quantitative regional parameters onto a surface, defined from the volumetric image, with reference to the displacement field and surface rendering the surface. The instructions further include instructions to repeat the above-mentioned steps a plurality of times. The repeated steps further include instructions for identifying quantitative regional parameters from displacement of the 4D data. The repetition thus produces a 4D-enhanced surface rendering with at least one quantitative regional parameter superimposed on a texture provided on the surface of the rendering. The result of this can be shown in
It will thus be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention provide an intuitive display of at least one quantitative parameter represented as color codes being mapped on to a surface rendering of an object. Embodiments of the present invention are particularly useful in analyzing the myocardial motion in detail.
It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the above-described embodiments (and/or aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from its scope. While the dimensions and types of materials described herein are intended to define the parameters of the invention, they are by no means limiting and are exemplary embodiments. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein.” Moreover, in the following claims, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects. Further, the limitations of the following claims are not written in means-plus-function format and are not intended to be interpreted based on 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph, unless and until such claim limitations expressly use the phrase “means for” followed by a statement of function void of further structure.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.
