JP5911234B2 - Volume data processing apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for generating a synthesized SPECT image in which the motion of a heart is canceled from an electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT image.

  A technique called Myocardial SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) is known in which RI (Radio Isotope) is administered to a subject and a tomographic image of the heart showing the state of blood flow of the myocardium is taken. Further, as an imaging method of myocardial SPECT, there are an ECG synchronous SPECT (Gateped SPECT) which is imaged in synchronization with an electrocardiogram and an ECG asynchronous SPECT which is asynchronous with the electrocardiogram. As a technique for processing an image taken by electrocardiogram synchronization SPECT, for example, there is a technique described in Patent Document 1.

JP 2006-153867 A

  Here, the electrocardiogram asynchronous SPECT is an image with a large blur that ignores the motion of the heart, and there is a limit to the information obtained therefrom.

  The ECG-synchronized SEPCT extracts a change due to the motion of the heart by analyzing each of a plurality of phase images so that more information can be obtained.

  By the way, when the movement of the heart is more accurately seen, it is known that the expansion and contraction are repeated while twisting with respect to the vertical axis. In the conventional analysis of the ECG-synchronized SEPCT, this twist is not considered.

  This applies not only to the ECG-synchronized SEPCT image but also to images related to other modalities synchronized with the ECG.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to synthesize an image in which the motion of the heart including twist is canceled from an image synchronized with an electrocardiogram.

  Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to perform comparison between subjects using a composite image in which the motion of the heart including torsion is canceled.

  The volume data processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises storage means for storing electrocardiogram-synchronized volume data comprising volume data of a plurality of phases, which is taken by dividing one cycle of a heartbeat into a plurality in synchronization with the electrocardiogram. , Using a plurality of phase volume data stored in the storage means, a motion vector calculation means for calculating a plurality of motion vector groups indicating heart motion between phases, and a plurality of phases stored in the storage means Volume data synthesizing means for synthesizing the volume data of the plurality of phases into a single synthesized volume data using the volume data and the plurality of motion vector groups calculated by the motion vector calculating means.

  In a preferred embodiment, the storage means stores electrocardiogram synchronization volume data of a first subject and one or more second subject electrocardiogram synchronization volume data, and the motion vector calculation means includes the first subject The plurality of motion vector groups are calculated for each of the ECG-synchronized volume data of one subject and one or more second subjects, and the volume data synthesizing means is configured to calculate the first subject and the one or more second subjects. Each of the synthetic volume data of the subject is generated, and the volume data processing device determines the first subject's synthetic volume data from the first subject's synthetic volume data and the one or more second subject's ECG-synchronized volume data. A polar map generating means for generating a polar map and a polar map of the one or more second subjects; It may be provided to.

  In a preferred embodiment, the motion vector calculation means may calculate the motion vector group based on a density gradient between volume data of two phases adjacent to each other.

  In a preferred embodiment, the volume data synthesizing unit uses the plurality of motion vector groups to move a voxel to which a reference voxel on the reference phase volume data, which is one of the volume data of the plurality of phases, is moved. Corresponding voxels are specified on the volume data of the target phase which is volume data other than the volume data of the reference phase, and all the voxel values of the corresponding voxels on the volume data of each specified target phase are The synthesized SPECT data may be generated by adding to the voxel value of the reference voxel.

  In a preferred embodiment, the volume data may be SPECT (Single Photo Emission Computed Tomography) image data.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a SPECT image processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing of an electrocardiogram synchronous SPECT. It is explanatory drawing of a motion vector. It is a flowchart of the process which the motion vector calculation part 13 performs. It is explanatory drawing of an image composition process. It is a flowchart of the process which the SPECT image synthetic | combination part 17 performs. 4 is a flowchart showing an overall processing procedure of the SPECT image processing apparatus 100.

  Hereinafter, a SPECT image processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, an electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT image analysis that analyzes an image captured based on an electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT method for analyzing the blood flow and function of the myocardium will be described as an example. In addition, a composite image can be generated using an image generated by PET (Positron Emission Computed Tomography), MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), CT (Computed Tomography), and ultrasound synchronized with an electrocardiogram.

  FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a SPECT image processing system according to the present embodiment. That is, the present system includes an image reconstruction system 1 that generates a three-dimensional image of a subject's heart by an ECG-synchronized SPECT method, and SPECT image processing that analyzes time-series image data reconstructed by the image reconstruction system 1 Device 100.

  The image reconstruction system 1 performs electrocardiogram synchronization SPECT that generates a three-dimensional SPECT image of the heart in each phase in synchronization with the electrocardiogram. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, an interval between R waves of an electrocardiogram (RR interval: one cycle of heart motion) is equally divided into N (N is an integer of 2 or more), and 1 / of the RR interval is obtained. A SPECT image of each phase (hereinafter referred to as a phase image) is taken at N sampling periods. FIG. 2 illustrates a short-axis tomographic image (Short Axis; hereinafter referred to as an SA image), which is one tomographic image of a three-dimensional image. There are ways to display such as Long Axis) and Horizontal Long Axis.

  This photographing is continuously performed for at least one cycle of the heartbeat. The image reconstruction system 1 generates N phase images (volume data) by superimposing images of the same phase over a plurality of cycles for the same part. 2 shows an example where N = 8, but N is arbitrary, and may be 16, 20, 32, for example. The ECG-synchronized SPECT image generated by the image reconstruction system 1 is stored in the ECG-synchronized SPECT data storage unit 11 of the SPECT image processing apparatus 100.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the SPECT image processing apparatus 100 includes an image processing apparatus body 10, an input device 3 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, and a touch panel, and a display device 5 such as a liquid crystal display.

  The image processing apparatus main body 10 is configured by a general-purpose computer system including a processor and a memory, for example. Individual components or functions in the image processing apparatus main body 10 described below are executed by executing a computer program, for example. Realized. The computer program can be stored in a computer-readable recording medium.

  The image processing apparatus main body 10 includes an electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT data storage unit 11 that stores an electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT image (an electrocardiogram-synchronized image), a motion vector calculation unit 13 that calculates a motion vector from the electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT image, and a heart motion. A vector data storage unit 15 for storing motion vector data, a SPECT image synthesis unit 17 for generating a synthesized SPECT image, a healthy person data processing unit 18 for processing a synthesized SPECT image of a healthy person, and data of the synthesized SPECT image. A synthesized SPECT data storage unit 19, a polar map generation unit 21, and a display control unit 23 are provided.

  The ECG-synchronized SPECT data storage unit 11 stores the ECG-synchronized SPECT data 111 of the patient (first subject) and the ECG-synchronized SPECT data 113 of one or more healthy persons (second subjects). The ECG-synchronized SPECT images 111 and 113 are composed of phase images (volume data) of a plurality of phases, which are taken by dividing one cycle of the heartbeat into a plurality of parts by the ECG-synchronized SPECT. Since each phase image is a three-dimensional image, the ECG-synchronized SPECT images 111 and 113 are volume data in which respective count values (pixel values) are stored in three-dimensional voxels.

  The motion vector calculation unit 13 uses the plurality of phase images of the ECG-synchronized SPECT image to calculate a motion vector indicating the heart motion between phases. The motion vector calculation unit 13 performs processing described below for each of the patient's ECG-synchronized SPECT image 111 and one or more healthy ECG-synchronized SPECT images 113 stored in the ECG-synchronized SPECT data storage unit 11. To calculate the motion vector of the patient and the motion vector of the healthy person. The patient motion vector data (patient vector data) 151 corresponding to the ECG-synchronized SPECT image 111 and the healthy person motion vector data (healthy person vector data) 153 corresponding to the ECG-synchronized SPECT image 113 are calculated as follows. Are stored in the vector data storage unit 15, respectively.

  The motion vector calculation unit 13 individually indicates where each voxel corresponding to the heart region in the phase image in the previous phase among the two phase images in the phase adjacent to each other has moved in the phase image in the subsequent phase. 3D individual motion vectors are calculated. That is, the motion vector calculation unit 13 calculates a motion vector group including individual motion vectors for the number of voxels from two phase images in adjacent phases. The motion vector calculation unit 13 calculates a motion vector group for all phases. In the case of an 8-phase ECG-synchronized SPECT image as shown in FIG. 2, seven motion vector groups are calculated.

  The motion vector calculation unit 13 may calculate each individual motion vector with a plurality of voxels as one unit, or the last phase image and the first phase image (phase images P8 and P1 in the case of FIG. 2). A motion vector group in between may be calculated.

  The motion vector calculation unit 13 calculates a motion vector based on a density gradient between two phase images whose phases are adjacent to each other. For example, the motion vector calculation unit 13 may calculate a motion vector group between phases using an optical flow method (particularly, a gradient method using a concentration gradient or a block matching method).

  The processing of the vector calculation unit 13 will be specifically described with reference to FIG. Here, for convenience of explanation, a two-dimensional image and a two-dimensional vector are illustrated, but in reality, the motion vector calculation unit 13 uses a three-dimensional image (volume data) to generate a three-dimensional vector. calculate.

  FIG. 3 shows SA images in phase image P1, phase 2 phase image P2, and phase 3 phase image P3 as examples of continuous phase images. The motion vector calculation unit 13 calculates a motion vector group V1 between phases 1-2 from the phase images P1 and P2. Similarly, the motion vector calculation unit 13 calculates a motion vector group V2 between phases 2-3 from the phase images P2 and P3. The motion vector calculation unit 13 performs the same processing for the images after phase 4. Each arrow and point in the motion vector groups V1 and V2 shown in FIG. 3 indicates individual motion vectors.

  For example, when calculating a motion vector group, the vector calculation unit 13 uses any of the voxels of the phase image of the previous phase (for example, phase 1) to the phase image of the subsequent phase (for example, phase 2) using the optical flow method. Individual motion vectors for each voxel are calculated. Each individual motion vector included in the motion vector group is associated with each voxel of the phase image of the previous phase.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart of processing performed by the motion vector calculation unit 13. The motion vector calculation unit 13 performs the following process on each of the patient's ECG-synchronized SPECT image 111 and one or more healthy persons' ECG-synchronized SPECT images 113.

  First, the motion vector calculation unit 13 specifies two adjacent phase images as target images (S11). The motion vector calculation unit 13 calculates a motion vector group from the previous phase image of the target image to the subsequent phase image by the optical flow method using the target image specified in step S11 (S13). The motion vector calculation unit 13 stores the motion vector group calculated here in the vector data storage unit 15 (S15). The motion vector calculation unit 13 performs the processes of steps S11 and S13 for all phases (S17). The processes from Steps S11 to S17 are repeated until the vector group between all the phases calculated here converges within a predetermined reference range (S19).

  Returning to FIG. 1, the vector data storage unit 15 stores the motion vector data calculated by the vector calculation unit 13. For example, when the ECG-synchronized SPECT images 111 and 113 are divided into eight phases as one cycle of the heartbeat as in the above example, the vector data storage unit 15 stores the ECG-synchronized SPECT images 111 and 113 of the respective patients and healthy persons. For 113, seven motion vector groups are stored as vector data 151 and 153, respectively. In the vector data 151 and 153 of the patient and the healthy person, one three-dimensional vector is assigned to each three-dimensional voxel as described above.

  The SPECT image synthesis unit 17 generates a synthesized SPECT image using a plurality of phase images stored in the electrocardiogram synchronization SPECT data storage unit 11 and a plurality of motion vector groups stored in the vector data storage unit 15. To do. The synthesized SPECT image generated here is an image in which each phase image is integrated into one sheet by removing the actual heart motion including twist. In other words, by using the motion vector, it is possible to identify the part of the heart that seems to correspond between each phase image, add the voxel values of the corresponding part and aggregate them into one image, thereby twisting. A more accurate SPECT image of the heart can be obtained in which the motion of the heart including it is canceled.

  The SPECT image synthesizing unit 17 generates a synthetic SPECT image 191 of the patient from the ECG-synchronized SPECT image 111 of the patient and the patient vector data 151, and stores it in the synthetic SPECT data storage unit 19. Similarly, the SPECT image synthesizer 17 generates a combined SPECT image 193 for each healthy person from the electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT image 113 and the healthy person vector data 153 of one or more healthy persons, and stores it in the synthesized SPECT data storage unit 19. .

  The SPECT image synthesizer 17 uses the plurality of motion vector groups to generate a corresponding voxel that is a destination voxel to which the reference voxel on the reference phase image that is one of the plurality of phase images has moved, as a reference phase image. Each of the target phase images is identified, and all the voxel values of the corresponding voxels on the identified target phase images are added to the voxel values of the reference voxels to generate a synthesized SPECT image.

  An example of image composition processing by the SPECT image composition unit 17 will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

  The SPECT image composition unit 17 sets one phase image as a reference image. The target image is a phase image other than the reference image, and the voxel to which the reference voxel on the reference image has moved, that is, the voxel to which the reference voxel has been moved (corresponding voxel) on the target image. Specify using individual motion vectors.

For example, the SPECT image composition unit 17 uses the phase image P1 of phase 1 as a reference image. Then, the reference image and the voxels of the target image # 1 in the phase adjacent to the reference image are associated with each other using a motion vector group between these two phase images. For example, in the example of FIG. 5A, if the reference voxel of the reference image is A0 (x0, y0, z0), the individual motion vector v1 (a1, b1, c1) is associated with the reference voxel A0. At this time, the corresponding voxel A1 (x1, y1, z1) associated with the reference voxel A0 (x0, y0, z0) is determined as follows.
x1 = x0 + a1
y1 = y0 + b1
z1 = z0 + c1

The SPECT image composition unit 17 further uses the target image # 1 and the target image # 2 of the phase adjacent to the target image # 1 using the motion vector group between these two phase images in the same manner as described above. To match. That is, when the individual vector v2 (a2, b2, c2) is associated with the corresponding voxel A1, the corresponding voxel A2 (x2, y2, z2) on the target image # 2 further corresponding to the corresponding voxel A1 is It is determined as follows.
x2 = x1 + a2 = x0 + a1 + a2
y2 = y1 + b2 = y0 + b1 + b2
z2 = z1 + c2 = z0 + c1 + c2

  Then, as shown in FIG. 5A, the SPECT image composition unit 17 performs the same processing as these using the remaining phase images as target images. Note that the voxels of the phase image of the previous phase and the voxels of the phase image of the subsequent phase that are associated with each other as described above do not necessarily have a one-to-one correspondence, and may have a one-to-many or many-to-one correspondence. When there are a plurality of corresponding voxel candidates in one target image, one corresponding voxel is specified by an arbitrary method.

  Next, the SPECT image synthesis unit 17 adds the voxel values of the voxels between the different phase images that are associated as described above. Then, a composite image is generated using the added voxel value as the voxel value of the reference voxel of the reference image. For example, in the above example, all the voxel values of the corresponding voxels A1 to A7 are added to the reference voxel A0 to generate a composite image based on the reference image. Note that which phase image is used as a reference image is arbitrary.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a composite image generation process performed by the SPECT image composition unit 17. The SPECT image synthesizer 17 executes the following processing using the ECG-synchronized SPECT images 111 and 113 and the vector data 151 and 153 of the patient and the subject, respectively.

  First, the SPECT image composition unit 17 determines one of the phase images stored in the electrocardiogram synchronization SPECT data storage unit 11 as a reference image (S21). Further, the SPECT image composition unit 17 determines one voxel in the reference image as a reference voxel (S23).

  The SPECT image composition unit 17 selects one target image (S25), and specifies the corresponding voxel corresponding to the reference voxel in the target image using the motion vector stored in the vector data storage unit 15 (S27). ). The details of the method for identifying the corresponding voxel are as described above. Steps S25 and S27 are performed on all target images (S29). Accordingly, one corresponding voxel is determined on each target image for one reference voxel.

  The SPECT image composition unit 17 performs the processing from step S23 to S29 for all the voxels of the reference image (S31). As a result, the corresponding voxels on all target images are determined for all the voxels of the reference image.

  The SPECT image composition unit 17 adds the voxel value of the corresponding voxel of the target image associated with each voxel of the reference image to generate a composite image (S33). The SPECT image synthesizing unit 17 stores the synthesized image generated here in the synthesized SPECT data storage unit 19 (S35).

  In this example, phase 1 is a reference image, and phase images from phase 2 to phase 7 are traced in the vector forward direction. However, a phase image other than phase 1 is a reference image, and part or all The synthesized image may be generated by tracing the vector in the reverse direction.

  The healthy person data processing unit 18 processes the data of one or more healthy persons' synthesized SPECT images stored in the synthesized SPECT data storage unit 19 to generate a synthesized SPECT image 195 that is an average of healthy persons. For example, the healthy person data processing unit 18 sums up the corresponding voxel values of the composite SPECT image data of a plurality of healthy persons, calculates an average value thereof, and generates a normal SPECT image 195 of the healthy person average. Also good.

  The synthesized SPECT data storage unit 19 stores the data of the synthesized SPECT image synthesized by the SPECT image synthesis unit 17. For example, the synthesized SPECT data storage unit 19 stores a synthesized SPECT image 191 of the patient based on the ECG-synchronized SPECT image 111 of the patient and a synthesized SPECT image 193 of the healthy person based on the one or more ECG-synchronized SPECT images 113 of the healthy person. The The synthesized SPECT images 191 and 193 are also three-dimensional images, and the respective count values (pixel values) are stored in the three-dimensional voxels. In addition, about the data of a healthy person, as above-mentioned, you may make it preserve | save the synthetic | combination SPECT image of the healthy person average which the healthy person data process part 18 produced | generated.

  The polar map generation unit 21 generates a polar map (bull's eye map) from the combined SPECT images 191 and 193 stored in the combined SPECT data storage unit 19. The polar map generation unit 21 may generate a polar map from the individual synthesized SPECT images 193 for one or more healthy persons, or may generate a polar map from the synthesized SPECT images 195 of the average of healthy persons.

  In addition, the polar map production | generation part 21 is performing normalization for comparing test subjects (for example, a patient and a healthy person) by producing | generating a polar map. Therefore, the SPECT image processing apparatus 100 may use a normalization method other than the polar map.

  The display control unit 23 causes the display device 5 to display the polar map generated by the polar map generation unit 21. In addition to this, the display control unit 23 displays the ECG-synchronized SPECT images 111 and 113 stored in the ECG-synchronized SPECT data storage unit 11 and the vector data 151 stored in the vector data storage unit 15 on the display device 5. You may let them.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an overall processing procedure of the SPECT image processing apparatus 100 having the above-described configuration. The electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT data storage unit 11 stores an electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT image 111 of a patient reconstructed in advance by the image reconstruction system 1 and an electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT image 113 of one or more healthy subjects.

  First, the motion vector calculation unit 13 calculates a patient motion vector group based on the patient's ECG-synchronized SPECT image 111, and stores it as the patient vector data 151 in the vector data storage unit 15 (S41). The motion vector calculation unit 13 further calculates a motion vector group of the healthy person based on one or more electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT images 113 of the healthy person, and stores it as the healthy person vector data 153 in the vector data storage unit 15 (S43). .

  The SPECT image synthesizing unit 17 generates a synthesized SPECT image of the patient based on the ECG-synchronized SPECT image 111 of the patient and the patient vector data 151, and saves it in the synthesized SPECT data storage unit 19 as the patient synthesized SPECT image 191 (S45). . The SPECT image synthesizing unit 17 further generates a synthesized SPECT image of the healthy person based on the electrocardiogram-synchronized SPECT image 113 and the healthy person vector data 153 of one or more healthy persons, and the synthesized SPECT data 193 is obtained as the healthy person synthesized SPECT image 193. Save in the storage unit 19. Further, the healthy person data processing unit 18 generates a synthesized SPECT image 195 that is an average of healthy persons from the healthy person synthesized SPECT image 193 and stores it in the synthesized SPECT data storage unit 19 (S47).

  The polar map generation unit 21 generates a patient polar map based on the patient synthetic SPECT image data 191 stored in the synthetic SPECT data storage unit 19 (S49). The polar map generation unit 21 further generates a polar map of the healthy person based on the average SPECT image data 195 of the healthy person stored in the synthetic SPECT data storage unit 19 (S51). And the display control part 23 displays the polar map of a patient and a healthy person on the display apparatus 5 (S53).

  Thereby, a SPECT image in which the motion of the heart including the twist is canceled can be synthesized from the ECG-synchronized SPECT image. Furthermore, a comparison between a patient and a subject such as a healthy person can be easily performed using a synthetic SPECT image obtained by canceling the motion of the heart including the twist from the ECG-synchronized SPECT image.

  The above-described embodiments of the present invention are examples for explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art can implement the present invention in various other modes without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, seven motion vector groups are calculated from eight phase images, but a vector group between the first phase and the last phase may be calculated. This theoretically provides a vector group in which each part of the myocardium returns to the original position in one heartbeat cycle. The SPECT image synthesis process may be performed using a vector group over one period.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image reconstruction system 10 Image processing apparatus main body 11 Data storage part 13 Vector calculation part 15 Vector data storage part 17 Image composition part 19 Data storage part 21 Polar map generation part 23 Display control part 100 SPECT image processing apparatus

Claims (8)

Storage means for storing electrocardiogram-synchronized volume data composed of volume data of a plurality of phases, which is taken by dividing one cycle of the heartbeat into a plurality of times in synchronization with the electrocardiogram;
A motion vector calculation means based on the concentration gradient between the volume data of the two phases adjacent to each other that have been stored in the storage means, for calculating a plurality of motion vector group showing the motion of the heart between the phases,
A volume for synthesizing the volume data of the plurality of phases into one synthesized volume data using the volume data of the phases stored in the storage means and the plurality of motion vector groups calculated by the motion vector calculation means. A volume data processing apparatus comprising: a data synthesizing unit; Storage means for storing electrocardiogram-synchronized volume data composed of volume data of a plurality of phases, which is taken by dividing one cycle of the heartbeat into a plurality of times in synchronization with the electrocardiogram;
Motion vector calculation means for calculating a plurality of motion vector groups indicating heart motion between phases using volume data of a plurality of phases stored in the storage means;
Using the plurality of phase volume data stored in the storage unit and the plurality of motion vector groups calculated by the motion vector calculation unit , a reference phase that is one of the plurality of phase volume data. Corresponding voxels that are destination voxels of the reference voxel on the volume data are respectively identified on the volume data of a plurality of target phases that are volume data other than the volume data of the reference phase, and each identified target phase A volume data processing apparatus comprising: volume data combining means for adding the voxel value of the corresponding voxel on the volume data to the voxel value of the reference voxel and combining the volume data of the plurality of phases into one combined volume data. The storage means stores ECG synchronization volume data of the first subject and one or more ECG synchronization volume data of the second subject,
The motion vector calculation means calculates the plurality of motion vector groups for each of the electrocardiogram synchronization volume data of the first subject and one or more second subjects,
The volume data synthesizing means, the first subject of the composite volume data and the one or more second subject of synthesis volume data generated respectively,
The volume data processing device
A polar map for generating a polar map of the first subject and a polar map of the one or more second subjects from the synthetic volume data of the first subject and the synthetic volume data of the one or more second subjects. The volume data processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a generation unit. The synthesis volume data is SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) image data, volume data processing device according to any one of claims 1-3. A method performed by a volume data processing apparatus having storage means for storing electrocardiogram-synchronized volume data consisting of volume data of a plurality of phases, which is taken by dividing one cycle of a heartbeat into a plurality of times in synchronization with an electrocardiogram,
A step of, based on the concentration gradient between the volume data of the two phases adjacent to each other that have been stored in the storage means, for calculating a plurality of motion vector group showing the motion of the heart between the phases,
A step of combining the plurality of phases of volume data into one combined volume data using the plurality of phases of volume data stored in the storage means and the calculated plurality of motion vector groups. Data processing method. A method performed by a volume data processing apparatus having storage means for storing electrocardiogram-synchronized volume data consisting of volume data of a plurality of phases, which is taken by dividing one cycle of a heartbeat into a plurality of times in synchronization with an electrocardiogram,
Using a plurality of phase volume data stored in the storage means to calculate a plurality of motion vector groups indicating heart motion between phases;
The reference on the volume data of the reference phase, which is one of the volume data of the plurality of phases , using the volume data of the plurality of phases stored in the storage means and the plurality of calculated motion vector groups . The corresponding voxel that is the voxel to which the voxel is moved is identified on the volume data of a plurality of target phases that are volume data other than the volume data of the reference phase, and the correspondence on the volume data of each identified target phase Adding the voxel value of the voxel to the voxel value of the reference voxel and combining the volume data of the plurality of phases into a single combined volume data. A computer program for a volume data processing apparatus having storage means for storing electrocardiogram-synchronized volume data consisting of volume data of a plurality of phases, which is taken by dividing one cycle of a heartbeat into a plurality of times in synchronization with an electrocardiogram,
A step of, based on the concentration gradient between the volume data of the two phases adjacent to each other that have been stored in the storage means, for calculating a plurality of motion vector group showing the motion of the heart between the phases,
Using the plurality of phase volume data stored in the storage means and the calculated plurality of motion vector groups to synthesize the plurality of phase volume data into one composite volume data; A computer program for causing a data processing apparatus to execute. A computer program for a volume data processing apparatus having storage means for storing electrocardiogram-synchronized volume data consisting of volume data of a plurality of phases, which is taken by dividing one cycle of a heartbeat into a plurality of times in synchronization with an electrocardiogram,
Using a plurality of phase volume data stored in the storage means to calculate a plurality of motion vector groups indicating heart motion between phases;
The reference on the volume data of the reference phase, which is one of the volume data of the plurality of phases , using the volume data of the plurality of phases stored in the storage means and the plurality of calculated motion vector groups . The corresponding voxel that is the voxel to which the voxel is moved is identified on the volume data of a plurality of target phases that are volume data other than the volume data of the reference phase, and the correspondence on the volume data of each identified target phase A computer program for causing the volume data processing apparatus to execute a step of adding a voxel value of a voxel to a voxel value of the reference voxel and combining the volume data of the plurality of phases into a single combined volume data.

Images