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US 8,150,498 B2Granted
System for identification of anatomical landmarks
AssigneeMedtronic, Inc.
InventorsFrans L. H. Gielen, Frank Hertel, Peter Gemmar, Peter Appenrodt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system including a processor and/or processor system can be used to identify landmarks in image data. The landmarks can be used to further identify anatomical targets. The landmarks and/or targets can be used to create a plan for a procedure, such as a surgical procedure. The processor can be used to determine the anatomical landmarks that can be used to identify anatomical targets in image data of a subject, even if the anatomical targets are indistinguishable in the image data.
Claims40
A system to determine an anatomical landmark in an anatomy, comprising:
- a processor;
- a first memory system to store instructions to be executed by the processor;
- a second memory system to store an storing image data of the anatomy;
- a display operable to display the determined anatomical landmark in the image data in the anatomy;
- and
- a user input to select a seed datum in the image data;
- wherein the processor is configured to access the first memory system and execute instructions stored in the first memory system to automatically determine the anatomical landmark in the anatomy based upon the selected seed datum in the image data stored in the second memory system, wherein the instructions include:
- instructions to automatically segment at least a third ventricle in the image data based on the selected seed datum;
- and
- subsequent to segmenting the third ventricle, determine at least one of an anterior commissure or a posterior commissure based on the location of the determined third ventricle in the image data;
- subsequent to executing the instructions to segment at least the third ventricle, instructions to automatically determine a location of an anterior commissure in the image data relative to an anterior portion of the segmented third ventricle by at least identifying a bright point in the image data at an anterior boundary of the segmented third ventricle, where the bright point includes an intensity change at the edge of the third ventricle and the edge is also the edge of the anterior commissure,
- subsequent to executing the instructions to segment at least the third ventricle, instructions to automatically determine a location of a posterior commissure in the image data at a posterior portion of the segmented third ventricle at least by identifying a bright point in the image data at a posterior boundary of the determined third ventricle, where the bright point can be an intensity change at an edge of the third ventricle that is also an edge of the posterior commissure;
- and
- subsequent to executing the instructions to determine the location of the anterior commissure and determine the location of the posterior commissure, instructions to automatically locate an anatomical target that is relatively indistinguishable from the surrounding structures in the image data.
11 more elements
A system to determine an anatomical landmark in an anatomy, comprising:
- a processor to access image data including at least a plurality of image slices including a third ventricle and execute instructions to process the image data;
- a memory system to store the instructions to be executed by the processor;
- a user input to identify a selected seed portion of the image data;
- and
- a display to display the processed image data;
- wherein the processor is operable to automatically execute the stored instructions configured to:
- segment a third ventricle in each of the plurality of image slices in the image data by growing a region from a selected seed portion based on a homogeneity method defined in the stored instructions;
- subsequent to segmenting the third ventricle in each of the plurality of slices, skeletonize a line in each of the plurality of slices within the segmented third ventricle;
- subsequent to skeletonizing the line, determine an axial slope angle and a coronal slope angle of the line;
- subsequent to determining an axial slope angle and a coronal slope angle of the line, align the plurality of slices in the image data;
- subsequent to aligning the plurality of slices in the image data, determine a mid-sagittal plane based on the skeletonized line in the aligned plurality of slices;
- and
- subsequent to aligning the plurality of slices in the image data, determine a location of at least one of an anterior commissure or a posterior commissure at an edge of the segmented third ventricle;
- subsequent to determining the location of at least one of an anterior commissure or a posterior commissure at an edge of the segmented third ventricle, locate an anatomical target that is relatively indistinguishable from surrounding structures in the image data based upon a known location of the anatomical target relative to the determined at least one of an anterior commissure or a posterior commissure;
- wherein the anatomical landmark is used to determine the anatomical target and the anatomical target is determined for performing a procedure on the anatomical target.
12 more elements
A system to determine an anatomical landmark in an anatomy, comprising:
- an imaging system operable to obtain a plurality of slices of image data of a brain of the anatomy at least including a third ventricle;
- a processor operable to execute instructions configured to automatically:
- generate refined image data by at least one of smooth the image data, remove unneeded data from the image data, define edges in the image data, or combinations thereof in each of the plurality of slices;
- subsequent to the generate the refined image data, segment the third ventricle in each of at least a sub-plurality of the plurality of slices of the generated refined image data of the brain;
- subsequent to segmenting the third ventricle, skeletonize a line within the segmented third ventricle in each of the sub-plurality of slices in the generated refined image data;
- subsequent to the skeletonize the line, determine a slope of the skeletonized line in at least each of the sub-plurality of slices in the generated refined image data;
- subsequent to the determine the slope, align at least each of the sub-plurality of slices of the generated refined image data based upon the determined slope of the skeletonized line in at least each of the sub-plurality of slices in the generated refined image data;
- and
- subsequent to the align at least each of the sub-plurality of slices of the generated refined image data determine a second region in the aligned image data that defines a second region of the brain, wherein the second region includes the anatomical landmark that is operable to be used to determine an anatomical target that is relatively indistinguishable from other structures in the image data;
- and
- a display operable to display at least one of the first region, the second region, or combinations thereof.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.