Anterior commissure and posterior commissure segmentation system and method

Inventors

Geiger, Paul Arthur

Assignees

Merge Healthcare Inc • Merative US LP

Abstract

A computer-implemented system and method of determining anterior commissure (AC) and posterior commissure (PC) points in a volumetric neuroradiological image. The method includes determining, by a computer, a mid-sagittal plane estimate to extract a mid-sagittal plane image from the volumetric neuroradiological image, and AC and PC point estimates in the mid-sagittal plane image. The method further includes determining, by the computer, a refined mid-sagittal plane estimate from the AC and PC point estimates to extract a refined mid-sagittal plane image, the AC point from the refined mid-sagittal plane image, and the PC point from the refined mid-sagittal plane image and the AC point.

Core Innovation

The patent describes a computer-implemented method for determining an anterior commissure (AC) point and a posterior commissure (PC) point in a volumetric image. The method creates an edge mask of each of a plurality of axial image slices included in the volumetric image, identifies a symmetry axis of each edge mask, and fits a plane to the symmetry axes, the plane defining a mid-sagittal plane estimate.

Based on the mid-sagittal plane estimate, the method extracts a mid-sagittal image from the volumetric image and determines the AC point and the PC point in the mid-sagittal plane image. The approach further refines the mid-sagittal plane using the AC point and the PC point to extract a refined mid-sagittal plane image, and updates at least one of the AC point and the PC point.

The patent also describes an image processing system and a non-transitory computer readable medium with processor-executable instructions to perform the workflow. The system includes modules configured to identify a mid-sagittal plane image included in the volumetric image using an AC point approximation and a PC point approximation, and then identify the AC point and the PC point based on the mid-sagittal plane image.

Claims Coverage

The independent claims cover a computer-implemented method, an image processing system, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for determining AC and PC points using mid-sagittal plane estimation and refinement. The inventive features center on extracting a mid-sagittal plane image from a volumetric image and determining AC and PC points from that image, with refinement of the mid-sagittal plane and updating at least one AC or PC point in some claims.

Across the independent claims, the core claim coverage centers on creating edge masks for axial slices, identifying symmetry axes, fitting a plane to define a mid-sagittal plane estimate, extracting a mid-sagittal plane image, and determining AC and PC points from that image, with refinement of the mid-sagittal plane based on AC and PC and updating at least one of the AC and PC points.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications