US 2015/0309149 A1 · METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING 3D GEOMETRIC DISTORTION IN MRI AND CT IMAGES

Abstract

3D printing in MRI-compatible plastic resin has been used to fabricate and implement a geometric distortion phantom for MRI and CT imaging. The sparse grid structure provides a rigid and accurate phantom with identifiable intersections that are larger than the supporting members, which produces images that are amenable to fully automated quantitative analysis using morphometric erosion, greyscale segmentation and centroiding. This approach produces a 3D vector map of geometric distortion that is useful in clinical applications where geometric accuracy is important, either in routine quality assurance or as a component of distortion correction utilities.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A method for measuring geometric distortions of a 3D medical imaging system, the method comprising:

a. providing a 3D phantom comprising a plurality of control points, each having a pre-determined location;
b. obtaining a 3D image of the phantom using either magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT);
c. identifying the control points in the image by segmentation and morphological erosion;
d. determining the location of the control points in the image;
e. comparing the location of the control points in the image with the pre-determined location of the control points in the phantom;
and,
f. deriving a spatial vector for each control point that quantifies the geometric discrepancy between the control points in the image and the pre-determined location of the control points in the phantom.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and apparatus for measuring 3d geometric distortion in mri and ct images

Life of this patent

Method and apparatus for measuring 3d geometric distortion in mri and ct images

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims8