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US 10,588,588 B2Granted
Method for the fully automatic detection and assessment of damaged vertebrae
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsMartin Sedlmair, Michael Sühling, Alexey Tsymbal, Dimitrij Zharkov
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Abstract
A method is disclosed for the automatic determination of the bone density and a method is disclosed for the automatic detection and characterization of spinal column fractures. Both methods enable the fully automatic detection and assessment of damaged vertebrae and reliably enable an analysis of the state of the vertebrae with a high accuracy rate. A computed tomography system to carry out either of the methods is further disclosed.
Claims11
A method, comprising:
- detecting at least one vertebral body in a computed tomography (CT) image, the CT image being based on at least one three-dimensional (3D) CT scan of a person to be examined;
- determining a contour of a cortical bone of the at least one vertebral body using an algorithm based upon measured Hounsfield Unit (HU) values;
- reducing the determined contour of the at least one vertebral body toward a center of the at least one vertebral body by a reducible marginal area or a reducible marginal volume to an inner area or an inner volume to exclude the cortical bone from a density measurement;
- determining density of the at least one vertebral body, wherein,
- in the determining of the contour, the contour of the cortical bone is ascertained based on the measured HU values along beam paths which run from a middle of the at least one vertebral body to an edge of the at least one vertebral body, and
- in the determining of the contour of the cortical bone, local maxima are ascertained based on the measured HU values along each beam path with an aid of a low-pass filter;
- and
- determining a probability of osteoporosis of the at least one vertebral body based on the determined density, wherein the algorithm comprises a shortest path algorithm.
5 more elements
A computed tomography system, comprising:
- a central processor to evaluate image data, the central processor of the computed tomography system being configured to:
- detect at least one vertebral body in a computed tomography (CT) image, the CT image being based on at least one three-dimensional (3D) CT scan of a person to be examined;
- determine a contour of a cortical bone of the at least one vertebral body using an algorithm based upon measured Hounsfield Unit (HU) values with an aid of a low-pass filter;
- reduce the determined contour by a reducible marginal area or a reducible marginal volume to an inner area or an inner volume to exclude the cortical bone from a density measurement;
- determine density of the at least one vertebral body, wherein,
- in the determining of the contour, the contour of the cortical bone is ascertained based on the measured HU values along beam paths which run from a middle of the at least one vertebral body to an edge of the at least one vertebral body, and
- in the determining of the contour of the cortical bone, local maxima are ascertained based on the measured HU values along each beam path;
- and
- determine a probability of osteoporosis of the at least one vertebral body based on the determined density, wherein the algorithm comprises a shortest path algorithm.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.