Granted Patent B2

US 8,520,916 · App. 12/033,031 · Granted Aug 27, 2013

Abstract

Claims (26)

1. A method carried out by a computer for displaying a radiographic image comprising:

identifying a region of interest in a portion of the radiographic image; the region of interest including low interest, high signal level image content including anatomical structures and non-anatomical foreign objects which overlap high interest image content exhibiting a relatively low signal level;

suppressing the low interest, high signal level background image content including anatomical structures and non-anatomical foreign objects within the identified region of interest and enhancing contrast of the overlapping high interest image content exhibiting a relatively low signal level within the region of interest without enhancing the overlapping low interest, high signal level image content, thereby to form an enhanced region of interest; and

displaying the enhanced region of interest within the remaining portion of the radiographic image;

further comprising suppressing artifacts within the identified region of interest wherein suppressing artifacts comprises:

identifying an object by applying a threshold to detect the object within the region of interest;

isolating the object from background content; and

replacing image data for one or more pixels identified within the object with calculated values wherein replacing image data for one or more pixels comprises:

identifying an artifact region that contains the object;

dividing the artifact region into an array of smaller blocks;

ranking each block according to relative percentage of missing data that are identified as artifacts; and

replacing missing pixels of each block with predetermined substitute pixel values.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein isolating the object from background content comprises:

applying one or more thresholds to form a threshold image;

performing a morphological erosion operation on the threshold image to accentuate a structure in the image;

removing isolated regions around the structure; and

performing a morphological dilation operation on the structure to isolate the object.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein replacing image data for one or more pixels comprises:

identifying an artifact region that contains the object;

performing a background surface fitting for the artifact region, excluding pixels associated with the object; and

replacing pixel values according to the background surface fitting.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein replacing image data for one or more pixels comprises:

identifying an artifact region that contains the object;

calculating the average pixel value and variation for a plurality of pixels within the region, but outside of the identified object; and

replacing pixel values according to the calculated average pixel value and variation.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the radiographic image comprises an externally inserted tube including one or more of a catheter, an endo-tracheal tube, a feeding tube, and a nasogastric tube.

Assignments (8)