# US 10,373,374 B2 · Device, imaging system and method for correction of a medical breast image > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,373,374 B2 - Document ID: US10373374B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/074,469 - Filed: 2017-02-15 - Published: 2019-02-28 - Granted: 2019-08-06 - Earliest claimed: 2016-02-29 - Assignees: Koninklijke Philips N.V. - Applicants: Koninklijke Philips N.V. - Inventors: Bjoern Eiben; Sven Kabus; Cristian Lorenz; Thomas Buelow; David John Hawkes; John Harold Hipwell; Vasileios Vavourakis - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10373374B2 ## CPC - G06T 17/20: Finite element generation, e.g. wire-frame surface description, {tesselation} - A61B 5/004: {adapted for image acquisition of a particular organ or body part (A61B5/0082 takes precedence; arrangements for optical scanning A61B5/0062)} - A61B 5/0064: {Body surface scanning} - A61B 5/0091: {for mammography} - A61B 5/055: involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging - A61B 5/4312: {Breast evaluation or disorder diagnosis (optical mammography A61B5/0091)} - A61B 6/032: {Transmission computed tomography [CT]} - A61B 6/502: {for diagnosis of breast, i.e. mammography} - A61B 6/5217: {extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data} - G06T 3/18: Image warping, e.g. rearranging pixels individually - G06T 5/70: Denoising; Smoothing - G06T 7/30: Determination of transform parameters for the alignment of images, i.e. image registration - G06T 15/08: Volume rendering - G06T 17/00: Three-dimensional [3D] modelling for computer graphics - A61B 6/5247: {combining images from an ionising-radiation diagnostic technique and a non-ionising radiation diagnostic technique, e.g. X-ray and ultrasound} - G01R 33/5608: {Data processing and visualization specially adapted for MR, e.g. for feature analysis and pattern recognition on the basis of measured MR data, segmentation of measured MR data, edge contour detection on the basis of measured MR data, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of signal-to-noise ratio by means of noise filtering or apodization, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of resolution by means for deblurring, windowing, zero filling, or generation of gray-scaled images, colour-coded images or images displaying vectors instead of pixels (image data processing or generation, in general G06T)} - G06T 2200/04: involving 3D image data - G06T 2207/10072: Tomographic images - G06T 2207/10081: Computed x-ray tomography [CT] - G06T 2207/10088: Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] - G06T 2207/20182: Noise reduction or smoothing in the temporal domain; Spatio-temporal filtering - G06T 2207/20221: Image fusion; Image merging - G06T 2207/30068: Mammography; Breast - G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL - A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D) - G01R: MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES (indicating correct tuning of resonant circuits H03J3/12) ## Abstract The present invention relates to device and method for correction of a medical breast image. To provide for an improved correction, said device comprises a medical image input (31) for obtaining a medical breast image of subject's breast potentially showing artificial deformations of the breast, a scan image input (32) for obtaining a scan image of the same subject's breast showing the breast in a predetermined position of the subject and comprising surface information of the breast, a simulation unit (33) for generating a simulated medical breast image from the obtained medical breast image, said simulated medical breast image showing the breast in the same predetermined position of the subject as the scan image and representing the breast surface by a surface mesh, wherein said simulation unit (33) is configured to generate said simulated medical breast image based on a volumetric biomechanical model, and wherein material parameters of the biomechanical model are varied for aligning the biomechanical model with the breast surface extracted from the scan image, and a correction unit (34) for determining corrections for correcting the simulated medical breast image for said artificial deformations by use of the scan image by applying a surface matching between said surface mesh and said scan image and for applying the determined corrections to the obtained medical breast image to obtain a corrected medical breast image. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A device comprising: a medical image input circuit that receives a medical breast image of a subject's breast potentially showing artificial deformations of the breast, a scan image input circuit that receives a scan image of the subject's breast showing the breast in a predetermined position of the subject and comprising surface information of the breast surface, a simulation circuit that generates a simulated medical breast image from the obtained medical breast image, the simulated medical breast image showing the breast in the same predetermined position of the subject as the scan image and representing the breast surface by a surface mesh, wherein the simulation circuit is configured to generate the simulated medical breast image based on a volumetric biomechanical model, and wherein material parameters of the biomechanical model are varied for aligning the biomechanical model with the breast surface extracted from the scan image, and a correction circuit that determines corrections to correct the simulated medical breast image for the artificial deformations based on the scan image by applying a surface matching between the surface mesh and the scan image, and applies the determined corrections to the obtained medical breast image to provide a corrected medical breast image. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The device of claim 1, wherein the simulation circuit is configured to rigidly align the generated surface mesh to the breast surface extracted from the scan image to optimize the material parameters of the biomechanical model. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The device of claim 1, wherein the correction circuit is configured to determine a displacement vector field indicating local corrections of the surface mesh and to apply the displacement vector field to the obtained medical breast image to obtain the corrected medical breast image. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The device of claim 1, wherein the correction circuit is configured to determine the corrections by imposing a displacement constraint on skin nodes of the surface mesh such that the skin nodes coincide with the skin surface represented by the surface scan image. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The device of claim 1, wherein the simulation circuit is configured to generate the simulated medical breast image such that the breast is represented by a volumetric mesh including the surface mesh and a volume mesh. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The device of claim 5, wherein the correction circuit is configured to determine the corrections by applying a surface warping. ### Claim 7 (depends on 5) The device of claim 5, wherein the correction circuit is configured to determine the corrections by applying a displacement calculation for driving the surface mesh towards the surface scan image. ### Claim 8 (depends on 5) The device of claim 5, wherein the correction circuit is configured to determine the corrections by applying a Laplacian mesh smoothing for regularizing the volume mesh. ### Claim 9 (depends on 5) The device of claim 5, wherein the correction circuit is configured to apply an area constraint for reducing local changes in the surface area of the breast surface. ### Claim 10 (depends on 5) The device of claim 5, wherein the correction circuit is configured to apply a self-intersection prevention for avoiding mesh intersections. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The device of claim 1, wherein the medical breast image is a supine CT image, a prone MRI image, or a mammographic image. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The device of claim 1, wherein the scan image is an upright scan image and wherein the simulation circuit is configured to generate an upright simulated medical breast image. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) An imaging system comprising: a medical image acquisition device that acquires a medical breast image of subject's breast potentially showing artificial deformations of the breast, a scan image acquisition device that acquires a scan image of the subject's breast showing the breast in a predetermined position of the subject and comprising surface information of the breast, a device as claimed in claim 1 that corrects the medical breast image acquired by the medical image acquisition device based on the acquired scan image, and an output device that displays the corrected medical breast image. ### Claim 14 A method comprising: obtaining a medical breast image of a subject's breast potentially showing artificial deformations of the breast, obtaining a scan image of the subject's breast showing the breast in a predetermined position of the subject and comprising surface information of the breast, generating a simulated medical breast image from the obtained medical breast image, the simulated medical breast image showing the breast in the same predetermined position of the subject as the scan image and representing the breast surface by a surface mesh, wherein the simulated medical breast image is generated based on a volumetric biomechanical model, and wherein material parameters of the biomechanical model are varied for aligning the biomechanical model with the breast surface extracted from the scan image, determining corrections for correcting the simulated medical breast image for the artificial deformations based on the scan image by applying a surface matching between the surface mesh and the scan image, applying the determined corrections to the obtained medical breast image to obtain a corrected medical breast image, and displaying the corrected medical breast image. ### Claim 15 A non-transitory computer-readable medium that includes a program that, when executed by a processing system, causes the processing system to: obtain a medical breast image of a subject's breast potentially showing artificial deformations of the breast, obtain a scan image of the subject's breast showing the breast in a predetermined position of the subject and comprising surface information of the breast, generate a simulated medical breast image from the obtained medical breast image, the simulated medical breast image showing the breast in the same predetermined position of the subject as the scan image and representing the breast surface by a surface mesh, wherein the simulated medical breast image is generated based on a volumetric biomechanical model, and wherein material parameters of the biomechanical model are varied for aligning the biomechanical model with the breast surface extracted from the scan image, determine corrections for correcting the simulated medical breast image for the artificial deformations based on the scan image by applying a surface matching between the surface mesh and the scan image, apply the determined corrections to the obtained medical breast image to obtain a corrected medical breast image, and display the corrected medical breast image. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The medium of claim 15, wherein the program causes the processing system to rigidly align the generated surface mesh to the breast surface extracted from the scan image to optimize the material parameters of the biomechanical model. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The medium of claim 15, wherein the program causes the processing system to determine a displacement vector field indicating the local corrections of the surface mesh, and to apply the displacement vector field to the obtained medical breast image to obtain the corrected medical breast image. ### Claim 18 (depends on 15) The medium of claim 15, wherein the program causes the processing system to determine the corrections by imposing a displacement constraint on skin nodes of the surface mesh such that the skin nodes coincide with the skin surface represented by the surface scan image. ### Claim 19 (depends on 15) The medium of claim 15, wherein the program causes the processing system to generate the simulated medical breast image such that the breast is represented by a volumetric mesh including the surface mesh and a volume mesh. ### Claim 20 (depends on 15) The medium of claim 15, wherein the program causes the processing system to determine the corrections by applying a displacement calculation for driving the surface mesh towards the surface scan image.