Image processing device, image processing method, and image processing program for performing determination regarding diagnosis of lesion on basis of synthesized two-dimensional image and priority target region

An image processing method executed by a computer, the image processing method comprising:

• detecting a specific structural pattern indicating a lesion candidate structure for a breast in a series of a plurality of projection images obtained by performing tomosynthesis imaging on the breast or in a plurality of tomographic images obtained from the plurality of projection images;
• synthesizing the plurality of tomographic images to generate a synthesized two-dimensional image;
• specifying a priority target region, in which the specific structural pattern is present, in the synthesized two-dimensional image;
• performing determination regarding a diagnosis of a lesion on the basis of the synthesized two-dimensional image and the priority target region;
• generating a likelihood map indicating a probability that the lesion is malignant for the entire synthesized two-dimensional image,
• generating a weight map in which a weight for the priority target region is larger than a weight for another region in the synthesized two-dimensional image,
• performing the determination regarding the diagnosis of the lesion by multiplying a likelihood in the likelihood map by the weight in the weight map for each corresponding region, and
• making a number of performing the determination regarding the diagnosis of the lesion on the priority target region larger than that on the other region in the synthesized two-dimensional image.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing an image processing program that causes a computer to execute a process comprising:

• detecting a specific structural pattern indicating a lesion candidate structure for a breast in a series of a plurality of projection images obtained by performing tomosynthesis imaging on the breast or in a plurality of tomographic images obtained from the plurality of projection images;
• synthesizing the plurality of tomographic images to generate a synthesized two-dimensional image;
• specifying a priority target region, in which the specific structural pattern is present, in the synthesized two-dimensional image;
• performing determination regarding a diagnosis of a lesion on the basis of the synthesized two-dimensional image and the priority target region;
• generating a likelihood map indicating a probability that the lesion is malignant for the entire synthesized two-dimensional image,
• generating a weight map in which a weight for the priority target region is larger than a weight for another region in the synthesized two-dimensional image,
• performing the determination regarding the diagnosis of the lesion by multiplying a likelihood in the likelihood map by the weight in the weight map for each corresponding region, and
• making a number of performing the determination regarding the diagnosis of the lesion on the priority target region larger than that on the other region in the synthesized two-dimensional image.