# US 2017/0281131 A1 · Hardness deriving device, medical imaging system, hardness deriving method and hardness deriving program storage medium > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2017/0281131 A1 - Document ID: US20170281131A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 15/450,051 - Filed: 2017-03-06 - Published: 2017-10-05 - Earliest claimed: 2016-03-30 - Assignees: FUJIFILM Corporation - Applicants: Fujifilm Corporation - Inventors: Tomonari SENDAI - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20170281131A1 ## CPC - A61B 8/485: {involving measuring strain or elastic properties} - A61B 6/502: {for diagnosis of breast, i.e. mammography} - A61B 8/0825: {for diagnosis of the breast, e.g. mammography} - A61B 8/403: {using compression means} - A61B 8/4416: {related to combined acquisition of different diagnostic modalities, e.g. combination of ultrasound and X-ray acquisitions} - A61B 8/461: {Displaying means of special interest} - A61B 8/5223: {for extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data (for algorithms to analyse biomedical images G06T7/0012)} - A61B 8/5261: {combining images from different diagnostic modalities, e.g. ultrasound and X-ray} - G16H 50/30: for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment - A61B 8/469: {for selection of a region of interest} - A61B 8/54: {Control of the diagnostic device} - A61B: DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION (usefulness limited to only animals A61D) - G16H: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA ## Abstract A hardness deriving device includes: an acquisition section configured to acquire plural ultrasound images obtained by ultrasound imaging a breast in a state in which the breast is pressed by a pressing member at a plurality of different pressures; and a deriving section configured to find an amount of change at corresponding points between the plural ultrasound images acquired by the acquisition section, and to derive information indicating a hardness of tissue of the breast based on the amount of change at the corresponding points. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A hardness deriving device comprising: an acquisition section configured to acquire a plurality of ultrasound images obtained by ultrasound imaging a breast in a state in which the breast is pressed by a pressing member at a plurality of different pressures; and a deriving section configured to find an amount of change at corresponding points between the plurality of ultrasound images acquired by the acquisition section, and to derive information indicating a hardness of tissue of the breast based on the amount of change at the corresponding points. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The hardness deriving device of claim 1, wherein the deriving section is configured to take pixels at corresponding sites in the breast in each of the plurality of ultrasound images as the corresponding points, and to derive the information indicating the hardness of the tissue of the breast based on an amount of change in pixel value of the pixels at the corresponding points. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The hardness deriving device of claim 1, wherein the deriving section is configured to take pixels at corresponding sites in the breast in each of the plurality of ultrasound images as the corresponding points, and to derive the information indicating the hardness of the tissue of the breast based on an amount of change in position of the pixels at the corresponding points. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The hardness deriving device of claim 1, further comprising: a display controller configured to control display, on a display section, of an elastographic image obtained by using colors according to the hardness indicated by the information derived by the deriving section. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The hardness deriving device of claim 4, wherein: the acquisition section is configured to further acquire a radiographic image imaged by irradiating the breast with radiation in a state in which the breast is pressed by the pressing member; and the display controller is configured to control display on the display section of the radiographic image and the elastographic image, either side-by-side or superimposed on each other. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The hardness deriving device of claim 5, further comprising: a region of interest reception section configured to receive specification of a region of interest in either the radiographic image or the elastographic image being displayed on the display section, wherein the display controller is configured to detect a position of the region of interest received by the region of interest reception section in an image in which the region of interest was specified from the radiographic image or the elastographic image, and to control display of information indicating a position corresponding to the detected position of the region of interest in the image in which the region of interest has not been specified. ### Claim 7 (depends on 5) The hardness deriving device of claim 5, wherein: the acquisition section is configured to acquire the plurality of ultrasound images from an ultrasound imaging device that performs ultrasound imaging of the breast by scanning the breast with ultrasound waves in a state in which the breast is pressed by the pressing member at the plurality of different pressures; and the hardness deriving device further comprises an imaging controller configured to detect a position of an image of an object of interest in the radiographic image, and to control the ultrasound imaging device such that a speed of scanning ultrasound waves is slower at a position corresponding to the detected position of the object of interest image than at another position. ### Claim 8 (depends on 5) The hardness deriving device of claim 5, wherein: the acquisition section is configured to acquire the plurality of ultrasound images from an ultrasound imaging device that performs ultrasound imaging of the breast by scanning the breast with ultrasound waves in a state in which the breast is pressed by the pressing member at the plurality of different pressures; the display controller is configured to display the radiographic image on the display section; and the hardness deriving device further comprises: an object of interest image reception section configured to receive indication of an image of an object of interest in the radiographic image being displayed on the display section; and an imaging controller configured to detect a position of the object of interest image received by the object of interest image reception section from the radiographic image, and to control the ultrasound imaging device such that a speed of scanning ultrasound waves is slower at a position corresponding to the detected position of the object of interest image than at another position. ### Claim 9 (depends on 3) The hardness deriving device of claim 3, wherein: the acquisition section is configured to acquire the plurality of ultrasound images from an ultrasound imaging device that performs ultrasound imaging of the breast by scanning the breast with ultrasound waves in a state in which the breast is pressed by the pressing member at the plurality of different pressures; and the hardness deriving device further comprises an imaging controller configured to control the ultrasound imaging device such that a speed of scanning ultrasound waves is slower at a position of a region of interest corresponding to an object of interest included in the breast than at another position. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The hardness deriving device of claim 1, further comprising: an alert section configured to display information indicating a position of tissue of the breast that is harder than a threshold value hardness and to issue an alert in cases in which a hardness indicated by the information derived by the deriving section is harder than the threshold value hardness. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The hardness deriving device of claim 10, further comprising: a hardness reception section configured to receive setting of the threshold value hardness, wherein the alert section is configured to display information indicating a position of tissue of the breast that is harder than the threshold value hardness received by the hardness reception section and to issue an alert. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) A medical imaging system comprising: an ultrasound imaging device configured to perform ultrasound imaging of a breast by scanning the breast with ultrasound waves in a state in which the breast is pressed by a pressing member at a plurality of different pressures and to output a plurality of ultrasound images that have been imaged; and the hardness deriving device of claim 1 configured to acquire with the acquisition section the plurality of ultrasound images that have been output from the ultrasound imaging device. ### Claim 13 A hardness deriving method comprising: acquiring a plurality of ultrasound images obtained by ultrasound imaging a breast in a state in which the breast is pressed by a pressing member at a plurality of different pressures; and finding an amount of change at corresponding points between the plurality of ultrasound images, and deriving information indicating a hardness of tissue of the breast based on the amount of change at the corresponding points. ### Claim 14 A non-transitory storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute hardness deriving processing, the hardness deriving processing comprising: acquiring a plurality of ultrasound images obtained by ultrasound imaging a breast in a state in which the breast is pressed by a pressing member at a plurality of different pressures; and finding an amount of change at corresponding points between the plurality of ultrasound images, and deriving information indicating a hardness of tissue of the breast based on the amount of change at the corresponding points.