Disease-specific longitudinal change analysis in medical imaging

An apparatus comprising:

• means for receiving 1) a first medical image depicting an anatomical object at a first time and 2) a second medical image depicting the anatomical object at a second time;
• means for encoding the first medical image with first spatial information to generate a first set of features using a machine learning based feature extraction network, the machine learning based feature extraction network receiving as input the first medical image and the first spatial information and generating as output the first set of features;
• means for encoding the second medical image with second spatial information to generate a second set of features using the machine learning based feature extraction network, the machine learning based feature extraction network receiving as input the second medical image and the second spatial information and generating as output the second set of features;
• means for encoding the first set of features and the second set of features into a set of longitudinal features using a machine learning based encoder network;
• means for performing a medical imaging analysis task on longitudinal changes depicted in the first medical image and the second medical image using a machine learning based network based on the set of longitudinal features;
• and
• means for outputting results of the medical imaging analysis task.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions, the computer program instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• receiving 1) a first medical image depicting an anatomical object at a first time and 2) a second medical image depicting the anatomical object at a second time;
• encoding the first medical image with first spatial information to generate a first set of features using a machine learning based feature extraction network, the machine learning based feature extraction network receiving as input the first medical image and the first spatial information and generating as output the first set of features;
• encoding the second medical image with second spatial information to generate a second set of features using the machine learning based feature extraction network, the machine learning based feature extraction network receiving as input the second medical image and the second spatial information and generating as output the second set of features;
• encoding the first set of features and the second set of features into a set of longitudinal features using a machine learning based encoder network;
• performing a medical imaging analysis task on longitudinal changes depicted in the first medical image and the second medical image using a machine learning based network based on the set of longitudinal features;
• and
• outputting results of the medical imaging analysis task.