Method for detecting and classifying a structure of interest in medical images

US7272251B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University · US

Inventors

• Burak Acar · Palo Alto, US
• Christopher Beaulieu · Los Altos, US
• Salih Burak Gokturk · Palo Alto, US
• Carlo Tomasi · Palo Alto, US
• David S. Paik · Boston, US
• R. Brooke Jeffrey, JR. · Los Altos Hills, US
• Sandy A. Napel · Menlo Park, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 30, 2003
• Grant date: Sep 18, 2007
• Expiry date: Jan 15, 2026

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06T2207/30061
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method to detect and classify a structure of interest in a medical image is provided to enable high specificity without sacrificing the sensitivity of detection. The method is based on representing changes in three-dimensional image data with a vector field, characterizing the topology of this vector field and using the characterized topology of the vector field for classification of a structure of interest. The method could be used as a stand-alone method or as a post-processing method to enhance and classify outputs of a high-sensitivity low-specificity method to eliminate false positives.