Pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus, pulmonary embolism diagnosis support method, and storage medium
A pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus includes a hardware processor that: obtains a dynamic image of a chest of an examinee captured through radiographic dynamic imaging; analyzes blood flow in the dynamic image to generate blood flow information; generates background lungs information regarding background lungs of the examinee; automatically generates diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism, based on the blood flow information and the background lungs information; and outputs the diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism.
1 . A pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus comprising a hardware processor that:
obtains a dynamic image of a chest of an examinee captured through radiographic dynamic imaging;
analyzes blood flow in the dynamic image to generate blood flow information based on signal values of pixels of regions related to pulmonary blood flow in the dynamic image;
generates background lungs information regarding background lungs of the examinee based on the dynamic image or based on an image captured by a modality different from dynamic imaging;
wherein the blood flow information includes information for determining whether an abnormality exists in the blood flow, and the background lungs information includes information for determining whether an abnormality other than the blood flow exists in the background lungs;
automatically generates diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism, based on the blood flow information and the background lungs information; and
outputs the diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism.
2 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the hardware processor automatically determines whether the blood flow is abnormal, based on the blood flow information, and
based on the background lungs information and the determination on whether the blood flow is abnormal, the hardware processor automatically generates the diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism.
3 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the hardware processor automatically determines whether the background lungs are abnormal, based on the background lungs information, and
based on the blood flow information and the determination on whether the background lungs are abnormal, the hardware processor automatically generates the diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism.
4 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the hardware processor automatically determines whether the blood flow is abnormal, based on the blood flow information,
the hardware processor automatically determines whether the background lungs are abnormal, based on the background lungs information, and
based on the determination on whether the blood flow is abnormal and the determination on whether the background lungs are abnormal, the hardware processor automatically generates the diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism.
5 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
when the blood flow is abnormal but the background lungs are normal, the hardware processor generates the diagnosis support information that indicates a possibility of pulmonary embolism.
6 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
when (i) the blood flow is abnormal and (ii) a region of the background lungs corresponding to a region of the abnormal blood flow is abnormal, the hardware processor generates the diagnosis support information that indicates a possibility of a disease different from pulmonary embolism.
7 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
when the blood flow is normal, the hardware processor generates the diagnosis support information that indicates no possibility of pulmonary embolism.
8 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the hardware processor generates the background lungs information, based on one or more frame images included in the dynamic image.
9 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
as the background lungs information, the hardware processor receives (i) an image captured by a modality that performs imaging different from dynamic imaging or (ii) information generated based on the image captured by the modality.
10 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the hardware processor obtains the background lungs information regarding background lungs of the examinee based on a plain X-ray image captured by a modality different from dynamic imaging.
11 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
wherein the diagnosis support information indicates a possibility of pulmonary embolism when the blood flow information indicates that the blood flow is abnormal and the background lungs information indicates that the background lungs are normal,
the diagnosis support information indicates a possibility of a disease different from pulmonary embolism when the blood flow information indicates that the blood flow is abnormal and the background lungs information indicates that a region of the background lungs corresponding to a region of the abnormal blood flow is abnormal, and
the diagnosis support information indicates no possibility of pulmonary embolism when the blood flow information indicates that the blood flow is normal.
12 . The pulmonary embolism diagnosis support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
wherein the hardware processor determines the blood flow is abnormal based on a decrease of blood flow in a region or based on a comparison of values of the blood flow with a predetermined threshold or predetermined range, and
wherein the hardware processor determines the background lungs are abnormal based on a finding of a morphological abnormality or based on a comparison of a change amount of a specific component of the background lungs with a predetermined threshold or predetermined range.
13 . A pulmonary embolism diagnosis support method comprising:
obtaining a dynamic image of a chest of an examinee captured through radiographic dynamic imaging;
analyzing blood flow in the dynamic image to generate blood flow information based on signal values of pixels of regions related to pulmonary blood flow in the dynamic image;
generating background lungs information regarding background lungs of the examinee based on the dynamic image or based on an image captured by a modality different from dynamic imaging;
wherein the blood flow information includes information for determining whether an abnormality exists in the blood flow, and the background lungs information includes information for determining whether an abnormality other than the blood flow exists in the background lungs;
automatically generating diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism, based on the blood flow information and the background lungs information; and
outputting the diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism.
14 . A nontransitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that causes a compute to:
obtain a dynamic image of a chest of an examinee captured through radiographic dynamic imaging;
analyzing blood flow in the dynamic image to generate blood flow information based on signal values of pixels of regions related to pulmonary blood flow in the dynamic image;
generate background lungs information regarding background lungs of the examinee based on the dynamic image or based on an image captured by a modality different from dynamic imaging;
wherein the blood flow information includes information for determining whether an abnormality exists in the blood flow, and the background lungs information includes information for determining whether an abnormality other than the blood flow exists in the background lungs;
automatically generate diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism, based on the blood flow information and the background lungs information; and
output the diagnosis support information regarding pulmonary embolism.