Inhalation metric for chest x-ray images

An apparatus for X-ray image inhalation quality monitoring, comprising:

• an input configured to receive a chest X-ray image of a patient;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• detect rib bones in the chest X-ray image;
• identify a plurality of intercostal spaces each representing a space between adjacent detected rib bones;
• detect diaphragm in the chest X-ray image and generate a diaphragm line comprising a plurality of points representing a path of a diaphragm in the chest X-ray image;
• assign a point score to each point of the diaphragm line using a score assigning rule, wherein the score assigning rule defines a correspondence in the image between a point of the diaphragm line and an intercoastal space;
• and
• determine an inhalation index based on the point scores of the points of the diaphragm line.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method for X-ray image inhalation quality monitoring, the method comprising:

• receiving a chest X-ray image of a patient;
• detecting rib bones in the chest X-ray image;
• identifying a plurality of intercostal spaces each representing a space between adjacent detected rib bones;
• detecting a diaphragm in the chest X-ray image and generating a diaphragm line comprising a plurality of points representing a path of a diaphragm in the chest X-ray image;
• assigning a point score to each point of the diaphragm line using a score assigning rule, wherein the score assigning rule defines a correspondence in the image between a point of the diaphragm line and an intercoastal space;
• and
• determining an inhalation index based on the point scores of the points of the diaphragm line.