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AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsPascal Raymond Allain, Guy-Michel Hourdin, Matthieu Ferrant, Jerome Francois Knoplioch
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For the automatic detection and characterization of nodules in a tomographic image of an anatomical zone of a patient, the image is segmented for identifying therein a region of interest, and the segmented image is processed for identifying the nodule. During the processing step, an ellipsoid inscribed in the region of interest is modeled for deciding whether the image elements inscribed in this ellipsoid correspond to a nodule, and, for each zone of the region of interest extending beyond the ellipsoid, the image elements are identified which do not belong to the module according to mathematical morphologic criteria.
Method of automatic detection and characterization of nodules (N) in a tomographic image of an anatomical zone of a patient, comprising a segmentation of the image for identifying therein a region of interest (N, V) and the processing of the segmented image for identifying the nodule (N), wherein during the step of processing, an ellipsoid inscribed within the region of interest is modeled, it is decided that the image elements inscribed within this ellipsoid correspond to a nodule and, for each zone of the region of interest extending outside the ellipsoid, the image elements are identified which do not belong to the nodule, according to criteria of mathematical morphology.
Tomodensimetric medical imaging system, comprising an x-ray emitter (16), corresponding detection means (18) capable of measuring differences of absorption density of x-rays by the tissues of an anatomical zone examined, and a calculator (20) for processing signals output from the detection means (18) for producing an image of the said anatomical zone, the calculator (20) comprising image segmentation means (28) for identifying a region of interest in the said image and means (30, 32, 34, 36) for processing the segmented image for the identification of nodules present therein, wherein the calculator (20) furthermore comprises means (30) for modeling an ellipsoid inscribed within the region of interest for deciding that the image elements inscribed in this ellipsoid correspond to a nodule, and means (32, 34) for analysis by mathematical morphology for identifying, in each zone of the region of interest extending outside the ellipsoid, the image elements not belonging to the nodule.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.