System, method and apparatus for small pulmonary nodule computer aided diagnosis from computed tomography scans
US7499578B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 17, 2003 |
| Grant date | Mar 3, 2009 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 5, 2026 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06T2207/30061
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention is a multi-stage detection algorithm using a successive nodule candidate refinement approach. The detection algorithm involves four major steps. First, the lung region is segmented from a whole lung CT scan. This is followed by a hypothesis generation stage in which nodule candidate locations are identified from the lung region. In the third stage, nodule candidate sub-images pass through a streaking artifact removal process. The nodule candidates are then successively refined using a sequence of filters of increasing complexity. A first filter uses attachment area information to remove vessels and large vessel bifurcation points from the nodule candidate list. A second filter removes small bifurcation points. The invention also improves the consistency of nodule segmentations. This invention uses rigid-body registration, histogram-matching, and a rule-based adjustment system to remove missegmented voxels between two segmentations of the same nodule at different times.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.