Granted Patent B2

US 12,343,566 · App. 18/636,853 · Granted Jul 1, 2025

Inventors: Daniel Letourneau (Toronto, CA); Elaine Conneely (Hamilton, CA)

Assignee: Elekta LTD.

A61N5/1075A61N5/1045G16H30/40A61N2005/1055A61N2005/1076

Abstract

Claims (74)

1. A method for determining image quality of a radiotherapy apparatus comprising an integrated linear accelerator and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging device (MR-Linac), the method comprising:

selecting a quality assessment procedure associated with the MRI imaging device of the MR-Linac;

obtaining a plurality of images from the MRI imaging device of a phantom that includes at least one module;

processing, based on the selected quality assessment procedure, a feature in the plurality of images representing components in the at least one module;

computing an image quality attribute associated with the MRI imaging device based on the processed feature;

determining whether the image quality attribute satisfies an allowable criterion; and

determining whether the MR-Linac is validly operating in response to determining that the image quality attribute satisfies the allowable criterion.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising adjusting one or more characteristics of the MR-Linac in response to determining that the image quality attribute fails to satisfy the allowable criterion.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality assessment procedure is a first quality assessment procedure for computing a position of the phantom with respect to axial field of view and computing dimensions of the phantom.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

selecting a first image of the plurality of images;

binarizing the first image such that the phantom shown in the first image has a unity pixel value;

identifying a column number of first and last pixels of the phantom in each row of pixels;

generating a region of interest (ROI) around the phantom based on the identified column numbers;

identifying a center of mass of the ROI based on the identified column numbers;

identifying a center of the first image;

computing a difference between coordinates of the phantom and the center of the first image to determine misalignment of the phantom; and

computing a height and width of the phantom based on the ROI.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality assessment procedure is part of a plurality of quality assessment procedures that includes at least one of a quality assessment procedure for checking a rotation of the phantom with respect to image space, computing slice thickness accuracy, computing high contrast spatial resolution, checking slice position accuracy, computing percent image uniformity, computing percent signal ghosting, computing low contrast detectability, or computing geometric accuracy.

6. A method for performing quality assessment of a radiotherapy apparatus comprising an integrated linear accelerator and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging device (MR-Linac), the method comprising:

selecting a validation procedure associated with the linear accelerator of the MR-Linac and a quality assessment procedure associated with the MRI imaging device of the MR-Linac;

obtaining a first plurality of images from an imaging detector each associated with a given radiation beam of a plurality of radiation beams that passes through a multi-leaf collimator (MLC) that has been adjusted based on the selected validation procedure;

obtaining a second plurality of images from the MRI imaging device of a phantom that includes at least one module;

processing the first and second plurality of images based on the selected validation and quality assessment procedures; and

determining whether the MR-Linac is operating within a valid range based on attributes of the first and second plurality of images determined from processing the first and second plurality of images.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising adjusting one or more characteristics of the MR-Linac in response to determining that the MR-Linac is operating outside of the valid range.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more characteristics are determined based on the selected validation or quality assessment procedure.

9. A system comprising:

one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising:

selecting a quality assessment procedure associated with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging device of a magnetic resonance linear accelerator (MR-Linac);

obtaining a plurality of images from the MRI imaging device of a phantom that includes at least one module;

processing, based on the selected quality assessment procedure, a feature in the plurality of images representing components in the at least one module;

computing an image quality attribute associated with the MRI imaging device based on the processed feature;

determining whether the image quality attribute satisfies an allowable criterion; and

determining whether the MR-Linac is validly operating in response to determining that the image quality attribute satisfies the allowable criterion.

10. The system of claim 9 , the operations further comprising adjusting one or more characteristics of the MR-Linac in response to determining that the image quality attribute fails to satisfy the allowable criterion.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the quality assessment procedure is a first quality assessment procedure for computing a position of the phantom with respect to axial field of view and computing dimensions of the phantom.

12. The system of claim 11 , the operations further comprising:

selecting a first image of the plurality of images,

binarizing the first image such that the phantom shown in the first image has a unity pixel value;

identifying a column number of first and last pixels of the phantom in each row of pixels;

generating a region of interest (ROI) around the phantom based on the identified column numbers;

identifying a center of mass of the ROI based on the identified column numbers;

identifying a center of the first image;

computing a difference between coordinates of the phantom and the center of the first image to determine misalignment of the phantom; and

computing a height and width of the phantom based on the ROI.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the quality assessment procedure is part of a plurality of quality assessment procedures that includes at least one of a quality assessment procedure for checking a rotation of the phantom with respect to image space, computing slice thickness accuracy, computing high contrast spatial resolution, checking slice position accuracy, computing percent image uniformity, computing percent signal ghosting, computing low contrast detectability, or computing geometric accuracy.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

selecting a quality assessment procedure associated with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging device of a magnetic resonance linear accelerator (MR-Linac);

obtaining a plurality of images from the MRI imaging device of a phantom that includes at least one module;

processing, based on the selected quality assessment procedure, a feature in the plurality of images representing components in the at least one module;

computing an image quality attribute associated with the MRI imaging device based on the processed feature;

determining whether the image quality attribute satisfies an allowable criterion; and

determining whether the MR-Linac is validly operating in response to determining that the image quality attribute satisfies the allowable criterion.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , the operations further comprising adjusting one or more characteristics of the MR-Linac in response to determining that the image quality attribute fails to satisfy the allowable criterion.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the quality assessment procedure is a first quality assessment procedure for computing a position of the phantom with respect to axial field of view and computing dimensions of the phantom.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , the operations further comprising:

selecting a first image of the plurality of images;

binarizing the first image such that the phantom shown in the first image has a unity pixel value;

identifying a column number of first and last pixels of the phantom in each row of pixels;

generating a region of interest (ROI) around the phantom based on the identified column numbers;

identifying a center of mass of the ROI based on the identified column numbers;

identifying a center of the first image;

computing a difference between coordinates of the phantom and the center of the first image to determine misalignment of the phantom; and

computing a height and width of the phantom based on the ROI.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising:

selecting a validation procedure associated with a linear accelerator of a magnetic resonance linear accelerator (MR-Linac) and a quality assessment procedure associated with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imaging device of the MR-Linac;

obtaining a first plurality of images from an imaging detector each associated with a given radiation beam of a plurality of radiation beams that passes through a multi-leaf collimator (MLC) that has been adjusted based on the selected validation procedure;

obtaining a second plurality of images from the MRI imaging device of a phantom that includes at least one module;

processing the first and second plurality of images based on the selected validation and quality assessment procedures; and

determining whether the MR-Linac is operating within a valid range based on attributes of the first and second plurality of images determined from processing the first and second plurality of images.

19. The system of claim 18 , the operations further comprising adjusting one or more characteristics of the MR-Linac in response to determining that the MR-Linac is operating outside of the valid range.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the one or more characteristics are determined based on the selected validation or quality assessment procedure.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (77)