Automated rib ordering and pairing
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsSowmya Ramakrishnan, Christopher V. Alvino, Dijia Wu, David Liu, Shaohua Kevin Zhou
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Ribs are automatically ordered and paired. After ordering ribs on each side, magnetic and spring functions are used to solve for rib pairing. The magnetic function is used to constrain possible pairs across sides, and the spring function is used to maintain the order on each side while accounting for missing or fused ribs.
Claims20
A method for automated rib ordering and pairing, the method comprising:
- receiving a spine location designation and rib location designations for a plurality of ribs;
- determining, with a processor, a left side or a right side of the spine location designation for each of the rib location designations;
- for the rib location designations on the left side, ordering, with the processor, the rib location designations sequentially;
- for the rib location designations on the right side, ordering, with the processor, the rib location designations sequentially;
- and
- pairing, with the processor, the rib location designations on the left side with the rib location designations on the right side as a function of the ordering, a spring cost function, and a magnetic cost function.
In a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for rib pairing, the storage medium comprising instructions for:
- receiving first and second lists of positions of ribs represented in data for left and right sides of a patient, respectively;
- and
- matching ribs on the right side with ribs on the left side as a function of a model of a distance-based affinity between ribs on the left and right sides based on a magnetic attraction energy and of an axial ordering from the lists based on a spring system enforcing the ordering.
A system for automated rib ordering and pairing, the system comprising:
- a memory configured to store scan data representing ribs of a patient;
- and
- a processor configured to determine an order of the ribs on each of first and second sides and to pair the ribs of the first side with the ribs of the second side as a function of the order on each of the first and second sides and as a function of magnetic and spring functions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.