Granted Patent B2

US 8,150,120 · App. 12/341,000 · Granted Apr 3, 2012

Abstract

Claims (38)

1. A method of bounding an anatomical object of interest in a 3-dimensional volume image, the method executed at least in part on a computer, comprising:

displaying an image of at least a portion of the anatomical object of interest;

selecting a plurality of points in the displayed image, at least a first point and a second point of the plurality of points spanning the anatomical object of interest;

forming a non-rectilinear surface bounding the plurality of points;

identifying a seed point within the anatomical object of interest within the non-rectilinear surface and evaluating image voxels disposed proximate the seed point and obtaining one or more statistical values from the evaluated proximate voxels; and

classifying image voxels within the non-rectilinear surface into a first class and a second class based on the one or more obtained statistical values.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-rectilinear surface is one of spherical and elliptical.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the seed point is located based on the first and second points, located at a midpoint along a path between the first and second points or proximate a portion of the path.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-rectilinear surface is centered about the seed point, where the image is a 2-dimensional image or a 3-dimensional image derived from the 3-dimensional volume image.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of points further includes a third point and a fourth point, the third and fourth points spanning the anatomical object of interest.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein at least three of the first, second, third, and fourth points lie on the non-rectilinear surface.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein at least three of the first, second, third, and fourth points are coplanar.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein a line segment connecting the first and second points approximates a maximum length of the anatomical object of interest, and a line segment connecting the third and fourth points approximates a maximum width of the anatomical object of interest.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of points further includes a fifth point and a sixth point, the fifth and sixth points spanning the anatomical object of interest.

10. The method of claim 1 , further including applying a noise filtering algorithm, using the computer, to a plurality of voxel values associated with the image voxels within the non-rectilinear surface, wherein the one or more obtained statistical values are extracted from the noise-filtered voxel values.

11. The method of claim 10 , further including classifying the image voxels within the non-rectilinear surface into the first and second classes based on the set of noise-filtered voxel values.

12. A method of bounding an anatomical object of interest in a 3-dimensional volume image, the method executed at least in part on a computer, comprising:

displaying an image of at least a portion of the anatomical object of interest;

selecting a first pair of points and second pair of points in the displayed image, both the first pair of points and the second pair of points spanning the anatomical object of interest;

forming an ellipsoid bounding the first pair of points and the second pair of points;

identifying a seed point within the anatomical object of interest and evaluating image voxels disposed proximate the seed point and obtaining one or more statistical values from the evaluated proximate voxels; and

classifying image voxels within the ellipsoid into a first class and a second class based on the one or more statistical values.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the ellipsoid is an ellipsoid of revolution.

14. The method of claim 12 , further including selecting a third pair of points in the displayed image, the third pair spanning the anatomical object of interest.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the ellipsoid is a minimal volume ellipsoid containing the first, second, and third pairs of points.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein at least one pair of the first, second, and third pairs of points lies in a different plane than the remaining pairs of points.

17. The method of claim 14 , comprising:

determining a first line segment connecting the first pair of points that approximates a maximum length of the anatomical object of interest,

determining a second line segment connecting the second pair of points that approximates a maximum width of the anatomical object of interest, and

determining a third line segment connecting the third pair of points that approximates a maximum height of the anatomical object of interest.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein classifying the image voxels within the ellipsoid comprises comparing image voxel values corresponding to the image voxels within the ellipsoid to a mean statistical value.

19. A method of bounding an anatomical object of interest in a 3-dimensional volume image, the method executed at least in part on a computer, comprising:

displaying an image of at least a portion of the object;

selecting a first pair of points and a second pair of points in the displayed image, each of the first pair and the second pair spanning the object;

forming a minimum area ellipse bounding the first pair and the second pair in response to the selection of the first pair and the second pair;

identifying a seed point within the ellipse based on one pair of points and evaluating voxels disposed proximate the seed point and obtaining a plurality of statistical values from the evaluated proximate voxels; and

classifying voxels within the ellipse into a first class and a second class based on the plurality of statistical values.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the anatomical object of interest comprises a lesion.

Assignments (8)