Method and system of fusion of two digital radiographic images
AssigneeGE Medical Systems SA
InventorsJerome Knoplioch, Eric Stefani, Jean Labarre
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of fusion of a first digital radiographic image obtained as a result of scanning with a second digital radiographic image obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A CT interval of gray levels is selected first in the scanner image. Each pixel of the scanner image having a gray level lying within the CT interval is then replaced by a pixel obtained by digital processing of the pixel of the same coordinates as the MRI image. The final image corresponds to the scanner image in which the pixels of gray levels lying within the CT interval have undergone the digital processing.
Claims21
A method of fusion of first and second digital radiographic images of an object comprising:
- scanning the object to provide first digital radiographic image;
- providing the second digital radiographic by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI);
- selecting in the scanner image a CT interval of a gray level wherein each pixel of the scanner image having the gray level lying within upper and lower limits of the CT interval is replaced by a pixel obtained by digital processing of the pixel of the same coordinates as the MRI image having corresponding MRI image gray levels;
- and
- providing a final image corresponding to the scanner image in which the pixels of gray levels lying within the CT interval are thus modified.
A system of fusion of first and second digital radiographic images comprising:
- means for providing the first digital radiographic image by scanning;
- means for providing the second digital radiographic image by MRI;
- means for reading pixels of the scanner image, gray levels of which lie within upper and lower limits of a CT interval;
- means for reading pixels of the MRI image, coordinates of which are identical to those of the pixels of the CT interval of the scanner image;
- and
- means for calculation of a third image comprising the scanner image in which the pixels whose gray levels lie within the CT interval are replaced by pixels obtained by digital processing of the pixels of the same coordinates as the MRI image having corresponding MRI image gray levels in order to obtain an image making possible visualization of the soft tissues and bony tissues.
A method for combining first and second radiographic images of an object to provide a third image comprising:
- providing the first image by CT scanning;
- providing the second image by MR scanning;
- recentering the first and second images by a two-dimensional rotation and/or translation so that the coordinates of the CT image and the MR image represent the same portion of the object;
- fixing in the CT image gray scale levels corresponding to upper and lower limits of the CT interval;
- fixing in the MR image gray levels corresponding to upper and lower limits of the MR interval;
- combining the first and second images to provide the third image by linear interpolation by integration the respective lower and upper limits of the CT interval and the respective lower and upper limits of the MR image, the third image having gray levels which lie within the CT interval are replaced by pixels of the same coordinates in the MR image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.