JPH07320034A - Pacs - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To correct an original image collected by an image collection device by processing the original image, obtained by a collecting means, by an output means. CONSTITUTION:This device consists of a system manager 11, plural image collection devices 12, a data base 13, plural work stations 14, a network 15, and a gateway 16 as the interface for an inspection order system 17 as an external equipment. Image data are converted linearly by the image collecting means 12 such as DFR(film digitization devices and image output devices such as CRTs(cathode-ray tube) provided to the work stations 14 processes the image data after the linear conversion as specified and displays them. Consequently, a processing similar the processing the original image can be performed on an image output device side and a failure at the time of automatic density correction can be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a PACS for forming a network by connecting a medical diagnostic device, an image storage device, an image display device and the like in a complex manner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the diversification of medical diagnostic apparatuses, it is possible to perform diagnosis while referring to medical images obtained by a plurality of diagnostic modalities (X-ray apparatus, MRI, ultrasonic apparatus, etc.). It's getting more and more. At present, image diagnosis in many hospitals is performed, for example, by the following procedure.

(1) A doctor in an examination request department (for example, internal medicine) examines a patient in a radiology department (for example, X-ray, CT, MRI).
Etc.). This request is made by issuing a test request form, and the test request form includes "patient ID number, name, date of birth, sex", "test request department name, test request doctor name",
"Test modality, site, method", "test purpose, clinical information", etc. are described.

(2) A radiological technologist inspects a patient in accordance with an instruction for an inspection request.

(3) An image interpreting doctor interprets the developed film. At this time, the images of past examinations of the patient are often referred to, which is important for improving the quality of interpretation. When you finish reading the image, create an interpretation report. The information that the radiologist writes in the diagnosing report includes "findings after reading the image", "conclusion", "name of the radiologist", and "interpretation date".
And so on.

(4) An image interpretation report is sent to the examination requesting doctor.

In order to systematically perform such image diagnosis, PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication)
A network system called "System" has been put to practical use. PACS is a system for supporting the work of doctors viewing medical images by storing, communicating, and displaying medical images (X-ray images, CT images, MR images, etc.) generated in a hospital. The image data sent from the image acquisition device for collecting and processing is stored in a database, and when the image is required, the image data is transferred to the image workstation, and the image workstation transfers the image to a cathode ray tube (CRT). ) Etc. have the function of displaying. Then, the doctor outputs the image displayed on the CRT or the image data on a film to make a diagnosis.
In addition, the interpretation report created at the time of diagnosis is PACS
Can be created and stored above.

A film digitizing device as one of image collecting devices which is a component of PACS will be described below.

For example, a film image taken by an X-ray diagnostic apparatus needs to be copied because a clinician and a radiologist often refer to the same film at the time of diagnosis. However, the optical copying technique deteriorates the image quality of the copied photo. Therefore, in order to prevent the deterioration of the image quality, a film digitizing device is often used, which converts a film image taken into a digital image signal once, performs image processing such as density correction on the image signal, and then creates a film image again. Has been.

FIG. 33 is an explanatory view for schematically showing the operation of the conventional film digitizing apparatus, which is X
When the X-ray film 6 photographed by the X-ray diagnostic apparatus is input to the film digitizer 1, the X-ray film 6 is digitized and the image processing apparatus 2 performs image processing such as density conversion.

Then, the digital image data after the image processing is stored in the image recording section 3, outputted to the monitor 4 and displayed as an image. Further, the X-ray film 8 copied by the laser imager 5 is created.

Then, the image processing apparatus 2 shown in FIG. 33 corrects the density by using the normal density correction curve. The density correction curve is composed of a plurality of curves (m,
n, o, p, q, r) are set, and a density correction curve is appropriately selected according to the exposure level of the original image to perform density correction. At this time, it is necessary to obtain the exposure level of the original image. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 35, a histogram in which the horizontal axis represents the pixel value and the vertical axis represents the frequency is created for the original image. Then, from this histogram, the minimum pixel value and 25
The% pixel value is calculated and applied to the exposure distribution chart shown in FIG. 36 to determine normal exposure, underexposure, and overexposure.

FIG. 36 is obtained statistically from an X-ray film of the chest. The points with the minimum pixel value of 350 and the 25% pixel value of 500 are the average values, and the standard deviations SD1 and 25 of the minimum pixel values are. Normal exposure is indicated by the circle (or ellipse) indicated by the dotted line in the figure surrounded by the standard deviation SD2 of the% pixel value, overexposure by the lower left direction of the circle, and underexposure by the upper right direction. To be judged. For example, in the example of FIG. 35, since the minimum pixel value is 100 and the 25% pixel value is 200,
It is determined that the exposure is overexposed, a correction curve corresponding to the overexposure level is selected from the curves shown in FIG. 34, and the density correction is performed.

Then, the operator displays the corrected image data on the monitor and confirms it. In the image recording unit 3 in FIG. 33, the corrected digital image data is converted into light and is exposed again on the film at a constant pitch, so that the corrected X
Get a line picture. In addition, the processed image data is the PA
Transferred to CS.

[0015]

However, such conventional PACS has the following problems.

(Problem 1) Image data obtained by an image collecting device such as a film digitizing device is transferred to a PACS network after being subjected to image processing. Cannot process the original image. Therefore, for example, a CRT
It is reported that there is a failure of about 10% when the automatic density correction is performed.

(Problem 2) Medical image acquisition conditions and output conditions must be set separately for each image acquisition device and image output device, which is troublesome to operate.

(Problem 3) Since the film output conditions are not managed, the output conditions may differ when performing comparative reading of films, and in this case, appropriate comparative reading cannot be performed.

(Problem 4) Similarly, with respect to the film and the CRT output, appropriate comparative image interpretation cannot be performed.

(Problem 5) Further, since the image processing conditions for CRT output are not managed, it is not possible to appropriately perform the comparative image interpretation even between the CRTs.

The PACS of the present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem, and a first object thereof is to solve the above (Problem 1). It is possible to correct the original image collected in.

A second object is to set the conditions for collecting and outputting medical images at once in order to solve the above (problem 2).

A third object is to solve the above (Problem 3) by making the conditions of the film output the same when the films are compared and interpreted.

A fourth object is to solve the above (Problem 4) by making the output conditions of both the same when performing the comparative image reading of the film and the CRT.

A fifth object is to solve the above (Problem 5) by making the image output conditions the same when performing comparative image reading using a plurality of CRTs.

[0026]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned first object, the first invention of the present application is a collecting means for collecting medical images, a transferring means for transferring medical images, and a storage for storing medical images. Means and an output means for outputting a medical image, each of which has at least one, and the PACS configured by connecting the respective means in a complex manner performs image processing on the original image obtained by the collecting means. The feature is that it can be executed by the output means.

In order to achieve the first purpose,
According to a second aspect of the present invention, at least one of a collecting means for collecting medical images, a transferring means for transferring the medical images, a storing means for storing the medical images, and an outputting means for outputting the medical images is provided.
In the PACS which has the above-mentioned each and is configured by connecting the respective means in a complex manner, the collecting means has a linearizing means for linearly converting the exposure-density characteristics of the collected image data, and the output means. Has a linear image processing means for performing image processing on the linearly converted image data.

Further, in the second invention, the linearizing means stores a function having an inverse characteristic with respect to the exposure-density characteristic of each image data collected, and the inverse characteristic function is used as the exposure-density characteristic. And a means for multiplying the characteristic function.

In order to achieve the first object, the third invention of the present application also provides a collecting means for collecting medical images, a transferring means for transferring the medical images, a storing means for storing the medical images, and a medical image. A PA having at least one output means for outputting and configured by connecting the respective means in a complex manner
In the CS, the collecting means includes means for applying desired image processing to the collected original image data, and conversion data for converting the processed image data back to the original image data. And means for adding to
The output means includes means for converting the processed image data into an original image based on the conversion data, and means for performing desired processing on the original image.

In order to achieve the second object, the fourth aspect of the present invention
The invention of claim 1, collection means for collecting medical images, transfer means for transferring the medical images, storage means for storing the medical images,
A PACS having at least one output unit for outputting a medical image and configured by connecting the respective units in a complex manner
In the above, there is provided means for collectively setting processing conditions in the collecting means and the output means.

In the fourth invention, the processing condition is at least one of a sampling pitch at the time of image collection, a contrast at the time of image output, an output stacker, and the number of copies.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, at least one of a collecting means for collecting medical images, a transferring means for transferring the medical images, a storing means for storing the medical images, and an outputting means for outputting the medical images are provided. In the PACS, which is configured by connecting the respective means in a complex manner, the collecting means applies means for performing desired image processing to the collected original image data, and the processing concerned with the processed image data. And a processing means for adding processing conditions relating to the above as additional data, the storage means stores the processed image data with the processing conditions attached thereto, and the output means stores the processing data in the storage means. When comparing the past image with the newly obtained image data, the image processing apparatus further comprises an output processing unit that processes the new image data according to the additional data attached to the past image.

In order to achieve the third object, in the fifth invention, the output processing means outputs the film output of the past image and the film output of the new image under the same processing condition. Characterize.

Further, in order to achieve the fourth object, in the fifth invention, the output processing means outputs the film output of the past image and the CRT output of the new image under the same processing condition. Characterize.

Further, in order to achieve the fifth object, in the fifth invention, the output processing means is C of the past image.
The RT output and the CRT output of a new image are output under the same processing condition.

[0036]

According to the first to third inventions of the present application having the above-described configuration, the processing of the original image can be added on the image output means side. Specifically, after the exposure-density characteristics of the image data are linearly converted by the image collecting means, this image data is transferred to the network, and the image output means processes the linearized data. It becomes possible to add the same processing as. As another method, the image data to be transferred on the side of the image collecting means is accompanied by conversion data relating to the conversion of the processing of this image data, and the processing on the side of the image output means is performed based on this conversion data. You will be able to process.

Further, in the fourth invention of the present application, it becomes possible to collectively set the processing conditions in the image collecting means and the image outputting means in the image collecting device or the like, so that the setting operation becomes easy.

Further, according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the output condition of each discharged film and the display condition on the CRT can be made the same, and the interpretation by the technician can be prepared.

[0039]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the first embodiment described below, after the exposure-density characteristics of the image data are linearly converted on the image collecting device side, the original image is corrected on the image output device side by transferring to the network. is there. For example, the exposure-density characteristic of the X-ray film has a characteristic curve as shown in FIG. 37, which is converted into a linear characteristic as shown in FIG.

Further, in the second embodiment, when a predetermined image processing is applied on the image collecting apparatus side, the contents of this image processing are added to the image data and transferred to the network, and the image output apparatus side adds this addition. The original image can be corrected by returning the image data to the original image based on the data.

First, the first embodiment will be described. Figure 1
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a basic configuration of PACS according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, this PACS includes a system manager 11 and a plurality of image acquisition devices 12 (two (1
2-1 and 12-2), a database 13, and a plurality of workstations 14 (two (14-1, 14 in the figure)
-2)), a network 15, and a gateway 16 as an interface between the inspection order system 17 which is an external device.

The network 15 is a command and data transmission path for communication between the respective devices, and an optical fiber or the like is used as a transmission medium. Although the network 15 shown in FIG. 1 is a local area network,
Other types of networks such as a star type may be used. Each device connected to the network 15 has a communication protocol and can communicate with each other.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the system manager 11. In the figure, the control device (SM-
The CTRL) 11a includes a central processing unit (CPU), a system memory, and the like, and controls the overall operation of the system manager 11.

System disk (SM-SD) 11b
Is composed of a magnetic disk, and is a "program for operating the system manager", "interpretation reference image preparation rule information", "WS-interpretation target inspection type information", "sampling pitch determination table", "contrast determination table". , "Stacker classification table", "copy number determination table", etc. are stored.

These programs and data are read when the power of the system manager 11 is turned on and written in the system memory in the control device 11a. here,
The image interpretation reference image preparation rule information is information indicating a rule regarding what past examination image is referred to during image interpretation. This information is used when the system manager 11 instructs the database (DB) 13 to prepare a past image of a patient. Table 1 shows the types of data included in the interpretation reference image preparation rule information. Note that this information can be rewritten.

[0046]

[Table 1] The image interpretation reference image preparation rule information data in this embodiment is
Specifically, it is as shown in Table 2.

[0047]

[Table 2] Here, the data in Table 2 represents the following rules.

(A) Priority is given to a new examination with the same examination site / same modality / examination date as the examination to be read.
The inspection with the oldest inspection date has the second priority (c) The same inspection site as the image interpretation target, different modality, and the new inspection with the new inspection date has the third priority (d) The same inspection region as the image interpretation target, different modality, and the old inspection date 4th priority is given to inspection (e) 5th priority is given to inspection sites that are different from the image to be read, the same modality, and newer examinations with the same examination date (f) 1st inspection is given to those that are different from the image to be read, or have the same modality and older examination date. 6 Priority (g) New inspection with different inspection site / modality / examination date is 7th priority (h) Different inspection site / examination with different modality / older inspection date is 8th priority The WS-interpretation target examination type information is information about what examination image is to be interpreted by which workstation (WS) 14, and is shown in Table 3. It is stored in the same format.

[0049]

[Table 3] In the present embodiment, as shown in Table 3, the workstation 14 is used to read an image of an inspection of a specific modality. That is, the workstation having the ID of WS-1 interprets only the uninterpreted examination of the X-ray modality. However, as for the past image of the patient, the image of any modality can be referred to. This information can be rewritten.

The sampling pitch determination table is a DFR (film digitizing) as the image collecting device 12.
This is information for determining the digitizing sampling pitch (corresponding to the pixel size of the image) in the digitizer section of the DFR system when using the system (described later) from the requesting doctor name, examination type, examination site, etc. , Are stored in the form shown in FIG. This information is rewritable and is transferred to the DFR system each time it is rewritten.

The contrast determination table is information for determining an appropriate contrast range from the requesting doctor name, examination type, examination site, etc. in order to display with an appropriate contrast on the workstation 14, and is in the form shown in FIG. Remembered This information is rewritable and is transferred to the workstation 14 and DFR system each time it is rewritten.

The stacker classification table is information for determining the classification from the examination request department, examination type, examination requesting doctor, etc. in order to physically classify and output the film from the film output section of the DFR system. It is stored in the form shown in FIG. This information is rewritable and is transferred to the DFR system each time it is rewritten.

The number-of-copies determination table is classified into examination type, examination state, examination requesting doctor, in order to output the required number of films from the film output section of the DFR system.
This is information to be determined by the inspection request department and the like, and is stored in the form shown in FIG. This information is rewritable and is transferred to the DRF system each time it is rewritten.

The inspection ID number issuing device (SM-EIDI) 11c shown in FIG. 2 is a device which issues an inspection ID number of the inspection in response to acceptance of new inspection request information. The inspection ID numbers are issued differently in the system. The initial value of the inspection ID number is 0. When the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a instructs the inspection device to issue the inspection ID number, the current inspection ID number is incremented by 1 and the new inspection ID number is set to the control device ( SM-CT
RL) 11a. Therefore, the inspection ID number starts from 1.

Inspection request information storage device (SM-EOIM)
Reference numeral 11d is a device (for example, a magnetic disk) that stores the inspection request information sent from the inspection order system together with the inspection ID number. Table 4 shows the inspection request information storage device 1
The type of data stored in 1d is shown.

[0056]

[Table 4] The examination history storage device (SM-EHM) 11e is a device (for example, a magnetic disk) that stores the examination history of a patient, and the type of data included in the examination history of one patient is as shown in Table 5, for example.

[0057]

[Table 5] The image interpretation report storage device (SM-IDRM) 11f is a device (for example, a magnetic disk) that stores the image interpretation report, and the types of data included in this image interpretation report are as shown in Table 6, for example.

[0058]

[Table 6] The information retrieval device (SM-SRCH) 11g retrieves information stored in each information storage device according to a command given by an instruction from the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a, and retrieves the retrieval result from the control device ( SM-CTRL) 11a
It is a device having a function of writing to the internal memory.

Network interface (SM-N
The WIF) 11h is an interface with the network 15, and communicates with other subsystems via the interface.

The control bus (SM-CBUS) 11i is a transmission line for various control information and data in the system manager.

Next, the image acquisition device (IA) shown in FIG.
12 (12-1, 12-2) will be described. In this embodiment, a DFR device (film digitizing device) will be described as an example of the image collecting device 12. The DFR device has the following functions.

(A) The film is automatically loaded. (B) The film is automatically developed. (C) The film and the inspection are associated with each other. (D) The identification information and ID are recorded on the film. (E) Read the film density and digitize it to produce a digital image. (F) Requests the system manager (SM) 11 to transfer the inspection request information, and receives the inspection request information sent from the system manager (SM) 11. (G) Input and display information associated with inspections and images. (H) Perform image processing. (I) Transfer image data, information associated with inspections and images to a database.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control system of the DFR device. In the figure, an automatic film loading controller (DFR-SET) 12c loads an unused film of a predetermined size into an empty cassette (magazine). Then, an image is taken by the image taking device shown in FIG. Same figure (A)
Shows a case of a cassette, and FIG. 7B shows a case of a magazine. In FIG. 3A, an X-ray beam 30a is transmitted from an X-ray tube 25a to an object 23a placed on a top plate 24a of a bed.
When is irradiated, the image transmitted through the subject 23a is photographed on the film in the cassette 27.

Similarly, in FIG. 2B, the top plate 24b
When the film sent from the magazine 29 is loaded on the contact plate 28 disposed on the lower side of the contact plate 28 and a fluoroscopic image of the subject 23b is taken, the film is returned to the magazine 29. Further, in each case of FIGS.
Ultrasonic sensors 26a and 26b are provided in the vicinity of 25b so that the X-ray tubes 25a and 25b can be connected to the subjects 23a and 23b.
The distance to b can be measured.

After the X-ray photography, the film is automatically taken out from the cassette (magazine), and the size of the film is detected by laser surveying.

The automatic film developing apparatus (DFR shown in FIG.
-DEV) 12d is for automatically developing the film. The inspection ID compatible device (DFR-ID) 12e is
In order to associate the filmed film with the inspection type, the ID bar code previously recorded on the film is associated with the reading inspection.

Film identification device (DFR-FID) 12
f determines a characteristic curve that determines the type of film, and identifies the film. This is performed by reading out a designated exposure portion recorded at a designated position on the film and referring to a characteristic curve determination table (described later) of the DFR-SD 12n using it as a parameter.

Film identification information, ID recording device (DFR
-DID) 12g records the film identification information, the bar code of the inspection ID issued by SM11, and the inspection information on the film. The film identification information is, for example, an identification code 66 whose density gradually changes as shown in FIG. 9, and this identification code is printed on the film. In the figure, reference numeral 65 indicates "+" which is a positioning mark.

Further, such an identification code 66 is shown in FIG.
As shown in 0, it can be created by changing the number of ND filters to be overlapped and irradiating the film with light. Then, before or after digitizing the film, the identification code 66 shown in FIG. 9 is irradiated with a laser, and the characteristics of exposure and density (HD curve) are obtained. As a result, the exposure-density characteristics as shown in FIG. 11 are obtained. Is obtained, this HD
The film can be identified from the curve.

As for the bar code of the inspection ID, for example, as shown in FIG. 12, three reference bars 59 set to the reference length are prepared, and the reference length is used before reading the bar. Set the height. Further, it is assumed that two identical barcodes 60 are prepared and the recognition of the bar is correct when the results of reading these are equal. Further, in order to make it easier to search the position of the bar, a "" mark is marked. Then, when the bar code is actually read, as shown in FIG. 13, the portion exceeding the predetermined threshold is recognized as a bar.

The inspection information is information such as the inspection ID, the patient name, and the inspection date as shown in FIG. 14, which is printed on the film.

The system disk (DFR-S shown in FIG.
D) 12n is a magnetic disk, which stores a program or the like for operating the DFR system. The program is read out when the power of the DFR system is turned on and written in the system memory in the controller 12i. Then, the following information is stored.

(A) Sampling pitch determination table (b) Characteristic curve determination table (c) ROI determination table (d) Contrast determination table (e) Stacker classification table (f) Writing pitch determination table (g) Copy number determination table Of which, (a) sampling pitch determination table,
Every time the system manager 11 rewrites the (d) contrast determination table, (e) stacker classification table, and (g) copy number determination table, the contents are rewritten from the system manager 11.

(B) The characteristic curve determination table is a table for classifying the characteristic curve of the film from the density parameter for the designated exposure recorded on the film. This is necessary for image processing suitable for the film, and is stored in the form shown in FIG. 15, for example.

Then, the film identification device (DF
The characteristic curve that matches the type of film determined by R-FID) 12f is selected from the curves shown in (B) of the same figure, and the correction curve type is selected from the determination table shown in (A) of the same figure. After that, the density correction curve shown in FIG. 16 is selected according to the selected correction curve type.

The (c) ROI determination table is a table that defines the method of determining the region of the histogram for obtaining the density correction parameter for each examination type and examination site, and is stored in the form shown in FIG. 17, for example. As shown in the figure, according to this table, the ROI extraction method is different for each examination type and examination site, and in the case of the chest, the ROI is a region ¼ of the area similar to the center of the image. In addition, a region having a certain density (threshold) or more in a mammo or extremity film is defined as ROI. Then, when the histogram of the image is calculated according to this ROI extraction method, FIG.
It becomes like (B) and (C).

(F) What is the write pitch determination table?
The writing pitch (corresponding to pixels) of the imager is determined for each shooting film size, and is stored in the form shown in FIG. 19, for example.

Image processing apparatus (DRR-IP) shown in FIG.
12h performs image processing such as density correction, frequency processing, and contrast adjustment described below.

<Density Correction> This is an operation for correcting the image data of the improper exposure so as to obtain the proper exposure. Based on the inspection site of the image data shown in the image accompanying information, D
The area of the histogram is determined with reference to the ROI determination table (FIG. 17) stored in the FR-SD 12n.
Then, based on the pixel values obtained in this histogram,
Density correction is performed using the exposure distribution chart of FIG. 36 shown in the conventional example.

<Frequency processing> Contrast enhancement is applied to the image data for which the density correction has been completed by the well-known unsharp masking method, and DFR-IM12k (described later).
To store.

<Contrast Adjustment> When the frequency processing is completed, the contrast of the image data stored in the DFR-IM 12k is adjusted. First, the maximum and minimum pixel values are extracted from the inspection site of the image accompanying information by the contrast table of DFR-SD12n. And
The minimum value (x) and the maximum value (y) of the pixel histogram are extracted from the image data stored in the DFR-IM12k, and the pixel values are set to the minimum and maximum values in the contrast table of the DFR-SD12n. Convert. Specifically, when the minimum value (X) and the maximum value (Y) of the contrast table are set, the pixel value p is converted by the following equations (1) and (2).

[0082]

## EQU1 ## p = x + | x-y | / 2 + (| x-y | / 2-p) (Y-X) (y-x) (1) (p <| x-y | / 2 + x ) P = x + | x−y | / 2 + (p− | x−y | / 2) (Y−X) (y−x) (2) (p ≧ | x−y | / 2 + x) Thus, Sampling pitch, characteristic curve, R mentioned above
Since it is possible to collectively set the medical image acquisition and output conditions such as OI, contrast, classification of stacker, writing pitch, and number of copies, the setting becomes easy and the second object described above can be achieved. Like

The inspection data image creating device (DFR-PAT) 12j shown in FIG. 8 converts the inspection request information and image accompanying information data into binary data in the font determined by the DFR-SD 12n (see FIG. 14). ), And embed this in the image data and store it in the DFR-SD 12n.

The image recording device (DFR-IM) 12k is
It is a laser imager that outputs processed pixel data. The laser beam diameter and writing pitch for imager writing are determined from the film size by referring to the writing pitch determination table (FIG. 19) of the DFR-SD12n, and the image data is transferred to the film. Bake. In addition, the film is developed and the inspection type, inspection status, inspection doctor name of the image accompanying information,
The number of copies is determined from the examination request department by the copy number determination table of DFR-SD12n, and the examination ID and patient ID are registered by referring to the stacker classification table of DFR-SD12n based on the examination request department, examination type, and examination requesting doctor. Output to the stacker.

The controller (DFR-CTRL) 12i is
It includes a central processing unit (CPU), a system memory (which is a semiconductor memory), and controls the operation of the entire DFR system.

Image linearization device (DFR-IIN) 12
m stores an inverse function of the characteristic function of the film determined by DFR-FID, and by multiplying the image data by this inverse function, the image data that becomes the density that changes linearly with the incident X-ray intensity is obtained. Create and store in DFR-IM 12k.

Film density reading device (DFR-F
R) 12p irradiates the film with a laser beam, measures the transmitted light as a quantity of electricity with a photomultiplier, and obtains digital grayscale image data by sampling the measurement data.
Laser light diameter and sampling pitch are DFR-SD12
It is determined by referring to the sampling pitch determination table of n (see FIG. 3).

Input device (DFR-INPUT) 12b
Is a means for an operator to input information, and a keyboard, a touch screen, or the like is used.

The display device (DFR-DISP) 12a is
Information input to the DFR device and DFR-IM12k
Is a device for displaying image data of, for example, CR
A T display is used.

Inspection information / image accompanying information storage device (DFR
-EIIM) 12q is configured by a device (for example, a semiconductor memory) that temporarily stores inspection information and image-accompanying information. The inspection information is information that describes the inspection. Table 7 shows the types of data included in the inspection information.

[0091]

[Table 7] The image accompanying information is information that describes an image, and is as shown in Table 8, for example.

[0092]

[Table 8] Among the data types included in the image accompanying information shown in Table 8, the data type and the data value determining method capable of automatically determining the data value are as follows.

(1) Image number Determined in the digitized order. The image number of the image obtained by digitizing the Nth film is N. (2) Image pixel size 1 (vertical) and image pixel size 2 (horizontal) Describe the vertical and horizontal sampling pitches determined by referring to the sampling pitch determination table of the DFR-SD 12n. (3) Image matrix size 1 (vertical) and image matrix size 2 (horizontal) A value obtained by dividing the film size obtained by the DFR-SET12c by the sampling pitch of (2) is described. (4) Bit length of pixel of image Assuming that the bit width of data is 10 bits, 10 is described. (5) Image data amount Image matrix size 1 and image matrix size 2
And the bit-length product of the image pixel. (6) Condition recording information The initial contrast, sampling pitch, and writing pitch are recorded. (7) Film type and correction curve information Describe the characteristic curve number and the correction curve type. (8) Progress of image processing Under what conditions was the image processed on the film? Did you record the image data? The history is described (see FIG. 32 described later).
reference).

Image data storage device (DFR-IMD) 1
Reference numeral 2r is a device (for example, a semiconductor memory) that temporarily stores image data handled by the DFR device.

Image compression device (DFR-COMP) 12s
Performs lossless compression of image data using, for example, the DCT algorithm (discrete cosine transform).

Network Interface (DFR-
The NWIF) 12t is a network interface, and communicates with other subsystems via this.

The control bus (DFR-CBUS) 12u is
It is a transmission path for various control information in the DFR device.

The image bus (DFR-IBUS) 12v is
It is a transmission path of image data in the DFR device. Although not shown in FIG. 8, a clock is built in the DFR device.

Next, the function of the database 13 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The database 13 has the following functions.

(A) Image data, inspection information, and image accompanying information are stored. (B) According to an instruction from the system manager (SM) 11, the image of the designated inspection is read from the low speed medium (optical disk in this embodiment) to the high speed medium (magnetic disk in this embodiment). (C) Data is supplied in response to a request from another device.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing the structure of the database 13. In FIG. 20, the controller (DB-CT) is shown.
The RL) 13a includes a central processing unit (CPU), a system memory (which is a semiconductor memory), and controls the operation of the entire database.

System disk (DB-SD) 13b
Is a magnetic disk and stores a program for operating the database. The program and the like are read out when the power of the database is turned on and written in the system memory in the control device 13a.

Exam Directory Storage (DB-DI
R) 13c is a storage device (for example, a magnetic disk) that stores the inspection directory. Table 9 shows the types of data regarding the directory information for one examination included in the examination directory.

[0104]

[Table 9] The information retrieval device (DB-SRCH) 13d retrieves information stored in the examination directory storage device (DB-DIR) 13c according to an instruction from the control device (DB-CTRL) 13a, and retrieves the retrieval result as a control device ( DB-CTR
L) A device having a function of writing to a system memory in 13a.

Optical disk device for image storage (DB-IO
D) 13e is a storage device that stores image data and image accompanying information for a long time, and an optical disc is used as a storage medium.

Magnetic disk device for image storage (DB-IH
D) 13f is a storage device for temporarily storing image data and image accompanying information, and a magnetic disk is used as the storage medium. The type of data stored by the magnetic disk device for image storage 13f is the optical disk device for image storage 13e.
Is the same as the type of data stored by. Further, management information (storage address of each data, which indicates what data is stored in the magnetic disk device for image storage,
The data amount) is stored in the image storage magnetic disk device 13f itself in association with the inspection ID number. And
The image sent from the image collection device (IA) 12 is first stored in the image storage magnetic disk device 13f.

The past images read from the image storage optical disk device 13e and referred to during image interpretation are written in the image storage magnetic disk device 13f and transferred in accordance with a request from the workstation (WS) 14. Be stored.

Block memory (DB-BLKM) 13g
Is a storage device which is composed of a semiconductor memory and temporarily stores image data, image accompanying information, and the like.

Network interface (DB-N
The WIF) 13h is an interface connected to the network 15, and communicates with other subsystems via the interface. Control bus (DB-CBUS) 13i
Is a transmission path of various control information in the database.
The image bus (DB-IBUS) 13j is a transmission line of image data in the database.

Next, the workstation 14 shown in FIG.
The function of will be described. Workstation 14
It has the following functions.

(A) Decode the compressed image data. (B) Display inspection request information, inspection history, images, image interpretation report, etc. (C) Input the interpretation report. (D) Outputting image data to film. (E) Image processing is performed.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the construction of the workstation 14. In the figure, an image compression device (WS-COMP) 14a decodes the image data compressed by the IA 12.

Linear data image processing device (WS-LI
P) 14b applies image processing such as density correction and frequency processing to the linearized data. The image output device (WS-FOUT) 14c outputs image data to a film. The image processing device (WS-IP) 14d performs image processing such as density correction and frequency processing.

The control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e includes a central processing unit (CPU), a system memory (which is a semiconductor memory), and controls the operation of the entire workstation.

System disk (WS-SD) 14f
Is a magnetic disk, and is a "program for operating the workstation", "relationship information between the radiographing method of the chest plain X-ray image and the relative display position", "radiologist information table", "writing" It stores programs and data such as "pitch determination table". These programs and data are read out when the power of the workstation is turned on and written in the system memory in the control device. Further, "relationship information between the image capturing direction and the relative display position of the image of the chest plain X-ray image" is information for automatically determining the display position of the image, and is shown in Table 10 below, for example. Information.

[0116]

[Table 10] The meaning of the description in Table 10 is as follows. “P → A”: indicates that X-rays were incident from the back of the patient. In this case, it becomes the front image. “L → R”; indicates that X-rays are incident from the left side of the patient. In this case, it becomes a right side view. “R → L”; indicates that X-rays are incident from the right side of the patient. In this case, it becomes a left side view. C: Indicates to display in the center. L: Displayed on the left side of the image of P → A (front image). R: Indicates that the image is displayed on the right side of the P → A image (front image). The information shown in this table can be rewritten. Further, the image interpretation doctor information table is a correspondence table of image interpretation doctor IDs and image interpretation doctor names, and is as shown in Table 11, for example.

[0117]

[Table 11] This information can also be rewritten. If you want to change the rewritable data, use this table as a character display device (W
S-CDISP) 14h, and input device (WS-
It can be rewritten by inputting new data from the INPUT) 14g and overwriting the updated data with the data before updating.

The input device (WS-INPUT) 14g is
It is a means for the operator to input information such as commands and interpretation reports, and a keyboard, touch screen, etc. are used.

Character display device (WS-CDISP) 14h
Is a device mainly for displaying characters such as inspection request information, inspection history, and interpretation report, and a CRT display, a liquid crystal panel display or the like is used.

The image storage device (WS-IM) 14i is
This device is composed of a magnetic disk, and is a device for temporarily storing image interpretation reference priority information, inspection request information, inspection history, image interpretation report, image accompanying information, image data, and the like.

Image frame memory (WS-IFM) 1
Reference numeral 4j is a device which is composed of a semiconductor memory and temporarily stores a large number of image data.

Image display manager (WS-IDM) 14
k controls the operation for displaying the image. The structure of the image display manager is shown in FIG. Further, this image display manager includes a “control unit”, an “image memory” for storing image data, a “display memory” for storing display data,
It includes "digital / analog conversion means" for converting display data from digital data to analog data.

These are arranged in the same number as the number of display devices.

Further, the image display manager can receive "type of data to be displayed", "designation information of display device for displaying data", and "image data".

When only displaying an image, the control unit of the image display device sets the type of data to be displayed as
It receives only the image and also receives the display device number of the display device that displays the data. Then, the data is written in the display memory of the designated display device number, and this data is converted into analog data by the digital / analog conversion means.

Image display device (WS-IDISP) 14 m
Is a device for mainly displaying an image, and is a CRT display capable of gradation display. There are four in the figure.

Network Interface (WS-N
The WIF) 14n is an interface for connecting to the network 15, and communicates with other subsystems via the interface.

The control bus (WS-CBUS) 14p is a transmission line for various control information in the workstation.
The image bus (WS-IBUS) 14q is a transmission line of image data in the workstation. The workstation has a built-in clock.

Hereinafter, a procedure of performing image interpretation of photographed image data using the PACS according to the present invention will be described. Now, taking a chest simple X-ray image as an example of image data, image interpretation is performed in the following procedure.

(1) Acceptance of examination request information (2) Collection and storage of images (3) Preparation of images for image interpretation (4) Image interpretation by an image interpreting doctor, comparative image interpretation, input of image interpretation report (5) Image interpretation Completion and Storage of Report <Acceptance of Inspection Request Information> The inspection request information created by the inspection order system 17 shown in FIG. 1 is the network interface (SM-NWI) of the system manager 11.
F) When arriving at 11h, control device (SM-CTRL)
11a retrieves the inspection request information from the network interface (SM-NEIF) 11h and transfers it to the system memory in the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a.

Upon receipt of the inspection request information, the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a receives the inspection ID number issuing device (SM-E).
The IDI) 11c is instructed to issue the inspection ID number. And the inspection ID number issuing device (SM-EIDI)
11c increments the current examination ID number by 1, and returns the new number to the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a. This number is unique to this inspection, and in this embodiment, the case of 880841 will be described.

Then, the controller (SM-CTRL) 11
In a, the issued inspection ID number and the inspection request information are combined and written in the inspection request information storage device (SM-EOIM) 11c. The written inspection request information is as shown in Table 12, for example.

[0133]

[Table 12] <Collection and Storage of Images> Now, a case where the cassette 27 is used in the film photographing apparatus shown in FIG. 7 will be described.

A 14 "* 14" cassette is prepared for photographing. Then, when the cassette 27 is not loaded with a film, the technician sets the cassette 27 in the cassette inlet of the DFR device. Then, as shown in FIG.
DFR-SET1 by the command of FR-CTRL12i
2c is activated, and an unused film of 14 ″ * 14 ″ size is automatically taken out from the cassette. The above operation is DF
It is performed in a dark room inside the R device.

Then, the preparation for photographing is performed in the following procedure.

(1) The operator first inputs the input device (DF
R-INPUT) 12b to inspection ID number 880841
Enter. The controller (DFR-CTRL) 12i is
The input inspection ID number is written in the inspection information / image accompanying information storage device (DFR-EIIM) 12q and further displayed on the display device (DFR-DISP) 12a.

(2) Subsequently, the control device (DFR-CTRL) 12i of the DFR system communicates with the system manager (SM) 11 via the network interface (DFR-NWIF) 12t, and the system manager (SM). The input inspection ID number is sent to 11 to request transfer of the inspection request information.

(3) The system manager (SM) 11, which has received the request from the DFR system, shows the sent inspection ID number in the information retrieval device (SM-SRC) shown in FIG.
H) Hand it over to 11g and instruct to search the inspection request information.

(4) The information retrieval device (SM-SRCH) 11g of the system manager (SM) 11 accesses the inspection request information storage device (SM-EOIM) 11d, and the same inspection ID number as the inspection ID number passed. Of the inspection request information having the following information is read out, the corresponding inspection request information is read out, and the control device (SM-CT) of the system manager (SM) 11
RL) 11i Write to system memory.

(5) The control device (SM-CTRL) 11a of the system manager (SM) 11 sends the read inspection request information to the network interface (SM-
NWIF) 11h and instructs the network interface (SM-NWIF) 11h to transfer data to the DFR device. Network interface (SM
-NWIF) 11h sends the inspection request information to the DFR device.

(6) When the network interface (DFR-NWIF) 11h of the DFR device receives the inspection request information from the system manager (SM) 11, the DF
The control device (DFR-CTRL) 12i of the R device reads the transferred inspection request information from the network interface (DFR-NWIF) 12t and writes it in the system memory in the control device (DFR-CTRL) 12i.

(7) DFR control device (DFR-C
TRL) 12i is an item to be displayed from the examination request information written in the system memory, that is, patient name, patient ID number, patient birth date, patient gender, examination modality name, examination site name, examination Data display method (DFR-D)
ISP) 12a at a predetermined position.

(8) The technician confirms the correctness by looking at the displayed patient and examination information. If there is an error, correct data is input from the input device (DFR-INPUT) 12b. The control device (DFR-CTRL) 12i is an inspection information / image accompanying information storage device (DFR-EIIL) 1
The data of the corresponding item stored in 2q is rewritten, and the corrected data is displayed on the display device (DFR-DISP) 12a.
It is displayed at a predetermined position of.

(9) The technician inputs the image accompanying information.
In this case, the "photographing direction" of the image is input from the input device (DFR-INPUT) 12b. The control device (DFR-CTRL) 12i uses the input imaging direction data as the inspection information / image accompanying information storage device (DFR-EI).
IM) 12q and display device (DFR-D
ISP) 12a at a predetermined position.

(10) When the technician finishes inputting the necessary data, the technician inputs the DFR system input device (DFR-INPU).
T) Input an input end command from 12b.

At this point, the display device (DFR-DIS
The information displayed on the screen of P) 12a is shown in FIG. Further, at this time, the inspection information data written in the inspection information / image accompanying information storage device (DFR-EIIM) 12q is shown in Table 13, and the image accompanying information data is shown in Table 14.
Shown in.

[0147]

[Table 13]

[Table 14] On the other hand, the technician sets the film on the cassette and prints the patient data as shown in FIG. Then, the film identification information and the ID recording device (DFR-DID) 12g
Then, a barcode corresponding to the inspection ID 880841 is created (see FIG. 12) and displayed on the CRT.

Further, as shown in FIG. 24, the image data in which the patient data is printed in the designated font (Gothic) on the film is displayed on the CRT.

Further, the film identification information and ID recording device (DFR-DID) 12g burns the identification code on the film by shining light on the ND filter as shown in FIG. The printing ends in an instant, and immediately after taking out the cassette from the film identification information and the ID recording device (DFR-DID) 12g, the photograph inspection of Shinichi Oda is started.

When X-ray photography is performed by the film photographing device shown in FIG. 7, the technician takes out the cassette of the photographed film from the photographing device and puts it in the DFR device.

When the cassette is loaded into the DFR device, the cassette is automatically taken out from the automatic film loading control device (DFR-SET) 12c, and it is detected that the cassette size is 14 "* 14". Then, the unused 14 ″ * 14 ″ film is loaded again in the cassette. Next, after a 14 "* 14" film is set in the cassette, the cassette is closed and discharged from the take-out port. On the other hand, the photographed film is sent to the automatic film developing device (DFR-DEV) 12d and is automatically developed.

The ID of the developed film is first read by the inspection ID corresponding device (DFR-ID) 12e. This is performed by scanning the area of the ID identification portion shown in FIG. 14 with a fixed 0.1 mm sampling pitch and laser beam diameter, and reading the reference bar size and bar code (two). Here, as shown in FIG. 12, when the bar code is interpreted based on the reference bar size, the inspection ID 880841 is obtained. The interpretation of the other barcode is the same as that of the inspection ID 880841, so the inspection ID is determined to be 880841.

Next, the entire image is scanned. The sampling pitch for this scan is determined as follows.
That is, through the control bus, the information that the imaging region of the examination ID 880841, Shinichi Ota, is the "chest" is displayed in the DFR-C.
TRL12i makes a request to the photographing device, and DFR-SD12n
The pitch is determined to be 0.1 from the sampling pitch determination table of FIG.

Further, the film density reading device (DFR
-FR) Digital image data collected with 12p is D
It is stored in the FR-IM 12k. Then, in the film identifying device (DFR-FID) 12f, the DFR-IM12
The film is identified from the image data of k. This corresponds to the points a to e of the film identification code shown in FIG.
Up to concentrations (0, 0.5, 2.0, 3.2, 4.
0) is measured, and the characteristic curve determination table (see FIG. 15A) stored in the DFR-SD 12n identifies that the characteristic of this film is as shown in FIG. 15B. Then, this identification result is DFR-CTRL12i.
And is written in the image accompanying information as shown in FIG.

Next, the image data processing is performed under the control of the image processing device (DFR-IP) 12h. Hereinafter, this process will be described.

(1) From the examination information shown in Table 14, since the examination site of Shinichi Tadashi is the "chest", the ROI is similar to the center of the image in the ROI determination table shown in FIG. It is said that The image histogram of this ROI is as shown in FIG. (2) Since it is determined that the correction curve is as shown in FIG. 15 (B), the DFR-CTRL 12i selects a correction curve suitable for overexposure from the correction curve group shown in FIG. In this case, the correction curve q is selected. Then, the image data is converted using this correction curve q, and the DFR is performed again.
-Store in IM12k. (3) DFR-IM12 for contrast enhancement
Unsharp masking is performed on the image data of k and the image data of k is re-stored in the DFR-IM 12k. (4) Next, the contrast is adjusted. That is, since the examination site of Oichi Shinichi is the "chest", the maximum pixel value from the contrast determination table of DFR-SD12n (see FIG. 4),
The minimum value is 800,200. Further, the pixel histogram after the density conversion is shown in FIG.
6, the maximum and minimum pixel values are 600,
It is 300. Therefore, regarding the pixel value p, the following (3),
The conversion shown in the equation (4) is performed and the data is stored again in the DFR-IM 12k.

[0157]

## EQU00002 ## p = 300 + (600-300) / 2-((600-300) / 2-p) (800-200) (600-300) (3) (p <(600-300) / 2 + 300 ) P = 300 + (600-300) / 2-((600-300) / 2-p) (800-200) (600-300) (4) (p ≧ (600-300) / 2 + 300) (5 The display device (DFR-DISP) 12a displays the processed image on the monitor. Further, in the inspection information / image accompanying information storage device (DFR-EIIM) 12q, the image accompanying information of the inspection ID 880841 is completed as shown in FIG.

Thus, the image processing apparatus (DFR-IP)
The process at 12h ends. After that, the image compression device (D
The image data of the DFR-IM is compressed by the FR-COMP) 12s and stored in the DFR-IMD 12r together with the image accompanying information. The compressed image data is transferred to the database (DB) 13 via the network interface (DFR-NWIF) 12t. Treated DFR-
The image data of the IMD 12r and the image accompanying information are transferred to the image recording device (DFR-IM) 12k via the image bus. Alternatively, the image linearization device (DFR-IIN) 12
The image data linearized by m and the image accompanying information are transferred to the image recording device (DFR-IM) 12k via the image bus.

That is, since the image data is linearized here and transferred to the image output device side via the network 15, it becomes possible for the image output device to perform image processing on the original image. The purpose of can be achieved.

Next, the image recording device (DFR-IM) 1
At 2k, the processed image is output. Here, first, the writing pitch is determined. According to the write pitch table of the DFR-SD12n (see FIG. 19), the inspection ID8
In the case of 80841, since the film size is 14 "* 14" and the sampling pitch is 0.1 mm, the writing pitch is 0.08 mm. Then, the image accompanying information of the inspection ID 880841 is the inspection information / image accompanying information storage device (DFR).
-EIIM) Based on the image accompanying information created with 12q,
Inspection data image creation device (DFR-PAT) 12j
Thus, a binary image image is created.

Since the inspection type of the inspection ID 880841 is "simple" photographing, the number of copies is determined to be 2 from the copy number determination table of the DFR-SD 12n (see FIG. 6), and image data is burned on the film by this number. To be

With the above operation, the writing pitch is 0.1.
In mm, two copies of the image-related information and the image image are created on the film and developed with the processing liquid.

When the digitizing of the film is completed in this way, the original film is discharged to a predetermined stacker. Also, the copied film is DFR-CTRL.
Emitted under the 12i command. That is, the inspection ID 8808
According to the inspection request information in Table 13, the requesting department 41 is a respiratory organ, so according to the stacker classification table shown in FIG. 5, it is registered to be output to the stacker number 3, and two films are sent to the stacker 3.

When it is desired to retrieve the film having the inspection ID 880841 later, the input device (DFR-INPU) is used.
If the inspection ID 880841 is input from T) 12b, the stacker classification table displays a message on the display device (DFR-DISP) 12a that there is a film in the stacker 3.

Thereafter, the registration and storage of the inspection information / image accompanying information / image data are performed in the following procedure.

(1) When data from the DFR device arrives at the database network interface (DB-NWIF) 13h, the database control device (DB
-CTRL) 13a reads the transferred data from the network interface (DB-NWIF) 13h and writes it in the block memory (DB-BLKM) 13g. (2) The control device (DB-CTRL) 13a writes the image data and the image accompanying information written in the block memory (DB-BLKM) 13g to the image storage magnetic disk device (DB-IHD) 13f. (3) The control device (DB-CTRL) 13a writes the image data and the image accompanying information written in the block memory (DB-BLKM) 13g to the image storage optical disc device (DB-IOD) 13e. Then, for each image (in this case, two images), the storage address of the image accompanying information and the storage address of the image data are obtained. In addition, for each image, the data amount of the image accompanying information is obtained. (4) The control device (DB-CTRL) 13a further includes
The directory information of the examination is written in the examination directory in the examination directory storage device (DB-DIR) 13c. The type of information contained in the inspection directory is
This is as shown in Table 9 above. The data obtained in steps (1) to (3) described above is written as the storage address of the image accompanying information for each image, the image data, and the data amount of the image accompanying information. Since other data is included in the inspection information and the image-accompanying information, necessary data may be copied from the information. (5) The control device (DB-CTRL) 13a reads the inspection information of the inspection from the block memory (DB-BLKM) 13g, and the network interface (DB-
System manager (SM) via NWIF) 13h
Transfer to 11.

Next, the procedure for adding the inspection history will be described. The inspection history is added by the following procedure.

(1) Network interface (SM-NWIF) 11 of system manager (SM) 11
When the inspection information arrives from the database at h, the control unit (SM-CTRL) of the system manager (SM) 11
11a is a network interface (SM-NWI
F) The inspection information is read from 11h and the control device (SM-
CTRL) 11a is written to the system memory. (2) The control device (SM-CTRL) 11a extracts the patient ID number from the examination information read in the system memory in the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a and sends it to the information retrieval device (SM-SRCH) 11g. , The patient ID
Instruct to search the examination history of the patient with the number. (3) The information retrieval device (SM-SRCH) 11g accesses the examination history storage device (SM-EHM) 11e to perform the instructed retrieval, and the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a.
The test history of the patient having the patient ID number given by is read out and written in the system memory in the controller (SM-CTRL) 11a. (4) The control device (SM-CTRL) 11a extracts only the necessary inspection history data from the inspection information transferred from the database and adds it to the inspection history data read in the system memory. Control device (S
The M-CTRL) 11a writes the inspection history to which new data is added to the inspection history storage device (SM-EHM) 11e. Thus, the latest test is added to the test history of the patient.

The test history (with new data added) data for this patient in this example is shown in Table 15.

[0170]

[Table 15] <Image Preparation for Image Interpretation> When the image data and the image accompanying information are created in this way, preparation for image interpretation is performed. First, preparation of past images in the database 13 is performed in the following procedure.

(1) System manager control unit (S
M-CTRL) 11a is a control device (SM-CTRL)
The examination site name, modality name, and examination date data in the examination history data of the patient in the system memory 11a are examined for each examination, and the examination reference priority is given to each examination. Then, it is stored as the interpretation reference priority information in association with the examination ID number of each examination. Table 16 shows the image interpretation reference priority order information data. In addition, in the table, an inspection having an image interpretation reference priority of 0 means an image interpretation target inspection.

[0172]

[Table 16] (2) System manager control device (SM-CTR
L) 11a reads the image interpretation reference priority information data from the system memory, transfers it to the network interface (SM-NWIF) 11h, and sends the data to the database (DB) 13 to the network interface (SM-NWIF) 11h. Instruct. The network interface (SM-NWIF) 11h sends the image interpretation reference priority order information data to the database (DB) 13.

Next, inside the database 13, the reading of the past image from the low speed medium to the high speed medium is performed in the following procedure.

(1) When the image interpretation reference priority information data arrives at the database network interface (SM-NWIF) 11h, the database control device (DB-CTRL) 13a transmits the image interpretation reference priority information data to the network interface. (SM-NWI
F) Read from 11h and control device (DB-CTRL)
Write to system memory in 13a. (2) Database control device (DB-CTRL) 13
a gives the examination ID number included in the image interpretation reference priority order information data to the information retrieval device (DB-SRCH) 13d, and instructs the retrieval / reading of examination directory information of the relevant examination. (3) The information retrieval device (DB-SRCH) 13d accesses the examination directory storage device to search the examination directory, and the examination ID number is 880841,10090.
2, 102287, 60563, the inspection directory data of the inspection is read out, and the control device (DB-CTR
L) Write to system memory in 13a. (4) Database control device (DB-CTRL) 13
The a confirms that the image data of the inspection (unread image) with the inspection ID number of 880841 and the image accompanying information data are written in the magnetic disk device for image storage (DB-IHD) 13e. If not remembered,
From the optical disk device for image storage (DB-IOD) 13e, all the image data and image accompanying information data of the inspection are read out, and the magnetic disk device for image storage (DB-IH).
D) Write to 13e. (5) Next, the database control device (DB-CTR
L) 13a has an inspection ID number of 100902, 1022
87, 60563 all the image data of each inspection and the image accompanying information data are stored in the optical disk device for image storage (DB
-IOD) 13e and writes it in the image storage magnetic disk device (DB-IHD) 13e. The reading of the images of the past inspections to the magnetic disk device for image storage (DB-IHD) 13e is executed in the order of the priorities included in the image interpretation reference priority order information data. Therefore, the magnetic disk device for image storage (DB-IHD) 13
When e becomes full and it becomes impossible to write any more, the image of the inspection having a lower priority is written in the magnetic disk device for image storage (DB-IHD) 13e.
That is, the images of the past examinations that are likely to be referred to during image interpretation are the magnetic disk devices for image storage (DB-IHD).
13e will be written.

When the past image is read out from the database 13 in this way, next, an instruction to prepare an image is given to the workstation 14. When the system manager (SM) 11 instructs the database to prepare past images, the system manager (SM) 1
The system memory 1 includes the examination history (new data is added) data of the patient (Shinichi Oda) and the image interpretation reference priority information data, and the instruction proceeds in the following procedure.

(1) System manager control unit (S
M-CTRL) 11a is a control device (SM-CTRL)
Of the image interpretation reference priority information data of the patient written in the system memory in 11a, the examination ID of the examination to be interpreted (the examination having a priority of 0, in this case, the examination ID number is 880841) The number is sent to the information retrieval device (SM-SRCH) to instruct the retrieval / reading of the inspection request information of the inspection having the inspection ID number. (2) The information retrieval device (SM-SRCH) 11g accesses the inspection request information storage device (SM-EOIM) 11d to perform the instructed retrieval, and the control device (SM-CTR).
L) The inspection request information data of the inspection having the inspection ID number given from 11a is read out, and the control device (SM-CT
RL) 11a is written in the system memory. (3) Control device of system manager 11 (SM-CT
The RL) 11a includes the examination ID numbers (in this case, four examinations) of all the examinations in the interpretation reference priority information data of the patient written in the system memory in the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a. Search device (SM-SRC
H) Send to 11g and instruct to search / read out the image interpretation report of the inspection having those inspection ID numbers. (4) The information retrieval device (SM-SRCH) 11g accesses the image interpretation report storage device (SM-IDRM) 11f to perform the instructed retrieval, and the control device (SM-CTR).
L) The control device (SM-CTRL) reads out the interpretation report of the examination having the examination ID number given from 11a.
Write to the system memory in 11a. (5) System manager control device (SM-CTR
L) 11a refers to the WS-interpretation target examination type information and selects the ID of the workstation on which the image of the chest plain X-ray examination with the examination ID number of 880841 is interpreted. The data included in the WS-interpretation target examination type information is as shown in Table 3 above. According to the WS-interpretation target examination type information, a plain chest X-ray examination (examination ID number is 88084
It can be seen that the image of 1) is interpreted by the workstation having the ID of WS-1 or WS-2. In this case, assume that WS-1 is selected. Since it is desired to make the load on the workstations as uniform as possible, the image of the next X-ray inspection is assigned WS-2 and is alternately assigned. (6) System manager control device (SM-CTR
L) 11a includes the examination request information (in this case, the examination ID number is 880841) written in the system memory in the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a and the patient (○).
Test history data and interpretation reference priority information data of Shinichi Tada) and interpretation reports of patient's past examinations (in this case, three examinations) are provided through the network interface (SM-NWI).
F) Transfer to 11h and instruct to send those data to WS-1. Network interface (SM-
The NWIF) 11h sends the given data to the WS-1.

Then, the image is prepared for the workstation 14 in the following procedure.

(1) When the data (inspection request information, inspection history, interpretation reference priority information, interpretation report) sent by the system manager arrives at the network interface (WS-NWIF) 14n of the workstation WS-1, the work is started. The control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e of the station WS-1 reads the arrived data from the network interface (WS-NWIF) 14n and writes it in the system memory in the control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e.

(2) The control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation WS-1 writes the inspection request information, the inspection history, the interpretation reference priority information, and the interpretation report in the image storage device (WS-IM) 14i. .

(3) The control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation WS-1 sees the image interpretation reference priority information, and determines the inspection ID number (880841) of the inspection having the smallest reference priority to the network interface ( WS-NWIF) 14n, and gives an image transfer request to the database. The network interface (WS-NWIF) 14n sends the given inspection ID number and image request command to the database (DB) 13.

(4) When the inspection ID number and the image request command arrive at the database network interface (DB-NWIF) 13h, the database control unit (DB-CTRL) 13a sends the sent data to the network interface. (DB-NWIF) 13
It is read from h and written in the system memory in the control device (DB-CTRL) 13a.

(5) Database control device (DB-C
The TRL) 13a checks whether the sent image data of the inspection ID number and image accompanying information data are in the magnetic disk storage device for image storage (DB-IHD) 13f, and if there is, is included in the inspection of the inspection ID number. All the image data and the image accompanying information data are read out and sent to the workstation WS-1 via the network interface (DB-NWIF) 13h. Inspection ID number 880841
The probability that the image data of the inspection image and the image accompanying information data will be present in the magnetic disk storage device for image storage (DB-IHD) 13f is very high.

If, for some reason, those data are stored in the magnetic disk storage device for image storage (DB-IHD) 13f.
If it is deleted from the inspection directory storage device, the information retrieval device is instructed to read the inspection directory of the inspection ID number from the inspection directory storage device, and the image storage optical disk storage device (DB-
IOD) 13e, the storage address is obtained, the image data and the image accompanying information are read from the optical disk storage device (DB-IOD) 13e for image storage, and the workstation is accessed via the network interface (DB-NWIF) 13h. Send to WS-1.

(6) When the image data sent from the database (DB) 13 and the image accompanying information data arrive at the network interface (WS-NWIF) 14n of the workstation WS-1, the workstation W
The control device (WS-CTRL) 14e of S-1 receives the arrived data from the network interface (WS-NW).
IF) 14n, and stores it in the image storage device (WS-I
M) Write to 14i.

(7) Database control device (DB-C
The TRL) 13a uses the same procedure as above to store a database (DB) of image data and image accompanying information data for other examinations included in the interpretation reference priority information.
13 to request and transfer the image data to a storage device (WS
-IM) Write to 14i. Database (DB) 13
Since the image requests to the inspections are made in ascending order of reference priority, 100902,10
The image data and the image accompanying information data are acquired in the order of the inspection ID numbers 2287 and 60563.

<Interpretation of Images and Input of Interpretation Report by Interpretation Doctor> Generally, images of a plurality of patients are prepared in the workstation. When performing an image interpretation, an image interpreting doctor is usually irrelevant as to which patient's image is to be read first. Therefore, the workstation automatically determines the order so that the inspection dates of the images to be interpreted are sequentially read from the oldest one.

Interpretation doctor is a workstation (WS-1)
An operation of interpreting an image of a plain chest X-ray examination (examination ID number 880841) of a patient, Shinichi Oda (patient ID number 87802), and creating an interpretation report will be described below.

First, as preparation for data display for image interpretation, data is prepared by the following procedure.

(1) Reading of inspection history Control unit (WS-CTR) of workstation WS-1
L) 14e reads the examination history data having the patient ID number of 870802 from the image storage device (WS-IM) 14i and writes it in the system memory in the control device (WS-CTRL) 14e.

(2) Reading of image incidental information and image data Control unit (WS-CTR) of workstation WS-1
L) 14e sees the image interpretation reference priority information, and stores the image accompanying information of all images for the examination ID number (870892) having the priority of 0 in the image storage device (W).
S-IM) 14i and read out the control device (WS-CT
RL) 14e system memory.

For the examination ID number (100902) having the priority of 1, all image data (in this case, two images) are stored in the image storage device (WS-I).
M) It is read from 14i, and it is a frame memory for images (WS
-IFM) 14j.

Next, the inspection ID numbers (100902, 102287, 60, respectively) whose priorities are 1, 2, 3 are assigned.
563), the image incidental information of all the images is read from the image storage device (WS-IM) 14i and written in the system memory of the control device (WS-CTRL) 14e, and all the image data is displayed. Storage device (W
It is read from the S-IM) 14i and written in the image frame memory (WS-IFM) 14j.

What is important here is that the reading of the image data is performed in the ascending order of the interpretation reference priority.

As a result, if the number of images of the patient is large, the image frame memory (WS-IFM) 14j
Even if all the image data cannot be written in, the image data that is highly likely to be referenced can be placed in the image frame memory.

(3) Reading of Interpretation Report Control unit of workstation WS-1 (WS-CTR)
L) 14e sees the image interpretation reference priority information, and in the order of ascending priority number (examination ID number 103541, 1
00902, 102287, 60563)
The image reading report from the image storage device (WS-IM) 14i, and the control device (WS-CTRL) 1
4e system memory.

(4) Image Processing The linear data image processing device (WS-LIP) 14b performs image processing on the linearized image data. The image data of the inspection ID 880841 is as follows.

(A) The WS-IM image data is converted by the characteristic curve of the original film described in the image accompanying information and stored in the WS-IM 14i. (B) Since the examination site of Shinichi Tada is the "chest", the ROI is a region having an area of 1/4 which is similar to the center of the image.
The pixel histogram of this ROI is as shown in FIG. (C) Temperature correction is performed. It is WS-C that a correction curve suitable for overexposure is obtained from the correction curve group of FIG.
The TRL 14e has been notified. In this case, the correction curve q is selected. The image data is converted using the correction curve q and stored again in the WS-IM 14i. (D) Contrast enhancement is performed. Performs unsharp masking on the WS-IM image data and
14i. (E) Adjust the contrast. ○ Since the examination site of Shinichi Tada is the "chest", the maximum and minimum values of the pixel are 800 and 200 from the contrast table of WS-SD14f. The pixel histogram after density conversion has maximum and minimum values of 600 and 300 as shown in FIG. Therefore, the pixel value p is converted by the following equations (5) and (6) and stored again in the WS-IM 14i.

[0198]

## EQU00003 ## p = 300 + (600-300) / 2-((600-300) / 2-p) (800-200) (600-300) (5) (p <(600-300) / 2 + 300 ) P = 300 + (600-300) / 2-((600-300) / 2-p) (800-200) (600-300) (6) (p ≧ (600-300) / 2 + 300) On the other hand, The image data of the inspection ID 100902 is as follows.

(A) Examination ID described in the image accompanying information
Image data of WS-IM14i is converted according to the characteristic curve of the original film of 100902, and WS-IM14i is converted.
Store in i. It is assumed that the characteristic curve is determined as shown in FIG. (B) Since the inspection part of the inspection ID 100902 is the “chest part”, the ROI is a region having an area ¼ which is similar to the center of the pixel. (C) Density correction is performed. It is W that the correction curve suitable for overexposure is obtained from the correction curve group of FIG.
The S-CTRL 14e has been notified. Minimum pixel value (2
The correction curve p is selected by selecting from the curve group of FIG. 16 as a curve for converting (00) into the average pixel value (350 ± ε). Image data is converted using the correction curve p and WS
-Store in IM14i. (D) Contrast enhancement is performed. Performs unsharp masking on the WS-IM14i image data and
-Restore in IM14i. (E) Adjust the contrast. Inspection ID 100902
Since the examination site is "chest", the maximum and minimum values of pixels are 800 from the contrast table of WS-SD14f.
It becomes 200. As shown in FIG. 27, the pixel histogram after the density conversion has maximum and minimum pixel values of 200,7.
00. Therefore, regarding the pixel value p, the following (7),
The expression (8) is converted and stored again in the WS-IM 14i.

[0200]

## EQU00004 ## p = 200 + (700-200) / 2-((700-200) / 2-p) (800-200) (700-200) (7) (p <(700-200) / 2 + 200 ) P = 200 + (700-200) / 2-((700-200) / 2-p) (800-200) (700-200) (8) (p ≧ (700-200) / 2 + 200) This conversion As a result, a histogram as shown in FIG. 28 is obtained. Then, according to such processing, the comparative image reading between the films, the comparative image reading between the film and the CRT image, C
It becomes possible to make the output conditions the same when performing the comparative reading of the RT images, and it is possible to achieve the above-described third, fourth, and fifth objects.

(5) Display of Image The workstation WS14 displays the image of the image to be read. Now, the image display device (WS-IDISP) 1
Since there are 4 units of 4m, it is necessary to carry out the examination for examination (inspection ID number 88
0841) and the most likely reference (Examination I
Since the image of D number 100902) can be displayed at one time, this display is automatically performed. Display is performed by the following procedure.

(A) The control device (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation WS-1 is the leftmost image display device of the four image display devices (WS-IDISP) 14m arranged side by side. , Inspection ID number 8808
41 images are displayed.

(B) The control device (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation WS-1 is the four image display devices (WS-IDISP) 14m next arranged in a line next to each other.
The image of the inspection ID number 100902 is displayed on the second image display device from the left side of the display. FIG. 29 shows the relationship between the image display devices (CRT1 to CRT4) and the types of images being displayed at this point.

An image display device (WS-IDISP)
When the image is displayed on 14 m, the inspection ID number of the inspection and the image signal in the inspection (both are in the image accompanying information) are displayed. Inspection I for film interpretation
The image of D100902 is output to an image output device (WS-FOU).
T) Film output from 14c. First, the writing pitch is determined. According to the writing pitch table of WS-SD, in the case of inspection ID 100902, film size 1
With 4 "* 14", the sampling pitch is 0.1 mm, so the writing pitch is 0.1 mm.

(6) Display of inspection request information Control device (WS-CTR) of workstation WS-1
L) 14e selects predetermined data such as the purpose of the examination, clinical information, and the name of the disease already given to the patient from the examination request information read out to the system memory, and the character display device (WS-). CDISP) 14h.

(7) Display of inspection history Control device for workstation WS-1 (WS-CTR)
L) 14e selects predetermined data from the inspection history data read out to the system memory, and displays the character display device (WS-CDISP) 1 as shown in FIG.
Display at 4h.

The control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation WS-1 displays the inspections by numbering the inspections in ascending order of the inspection date in the inspection history. Also,
Looking at the interpretation reference priority information, for the examination with the priority of 0 (that is the examination that is the interpretation target), a star is displayed before the examination number of the displayed examination history to indicate the priority. For an inspection in which is 1 (the inspection most likely to be referred to), a star mark is displayed before the inspection number of the displayed inspection history. As a result, it is possible to determine at a glance what is the inspection that is most likely to be referred to the image interpretation target inspection.

(8) Display of past interpretation report The control unit (WS-CTR) of workstation WS-1
L) 14e selects the interpretation report of the examination number with the lowest interpretation reference priority from the past interpretation reports of the patient that have been read out to the system memory, and displays it on the character display device (WS-CDISP) 14h. To do.

Then, when the image interpreting doctor reads the image and displays the image other than the displayed image and the image interpretation report, a command for that is input device (WS-INPUT) 14
Operate by inputting from g.

After the image interpretation is completed, the doctor inputs the image interpretation report to the workstation (WS) 14. Input device (WS-INPUT) 14g
However, the display is a character display device (WS-CDISP) 14h
Is used. The interpretation report is input by selecting a word, a phrase, or a sentence. Words, phrases to be selected,
The text is registered in advance in the system disk of the control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation (WS) 14, and this dictionary is commonly used in the entire system. The procedure for inputting an interpretation report is as follows.

(1) Display of Interpretation Report Creation Screen The diagnosing interpretation doctor inputs the input device (WS) of the workstation WS-1.
-INPUT) 14g, the control device (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation WS-1 inputs the format of the interpretation report to the character display device (WS-C) as shown in FIG. 31, for example.
DISP) 14h. An area surrounded by a dotted line in FIG. 31 is an area for displaying a word, a phrase, or a sentence to be selected by the image interpretation doctor.

(2) Input of Interpretation Report According to the displayed format, the interpreting doctor, for each finding, the type of abnormality, the area in which the abnormality exists, the comparison result with the past image, the examination ID of the past image compared Enter five items: the number and the image number of the past image that was compared. For the inspection ID number of the compared past examination and the image signal of the compared past examination, the numbers displayed together with the image are input. When the image is obtained by reading the image without comparison with the past image, 0 is input to the compared past examination. The controller (WS-CTRL) 14e displays the input data at a predetermined position on the screen and stores it in the system memory in association with the finding number. After inputting the findings, enter the conclusion. Interpretation doctor uses input device (WS-
INPUT) Input an image interpretation report input end command from 14g.

<Completion and Storage of Interpretation Report> When the input of the interpretation report is completed, the interpretation report is completed by the following processing.

(1) If the image interpretation doctor finds it necessary, he / she corrects the already entered image interpretation report by inputting from the input device (WS-INPUT) 14g. The control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation WS-1 changes the image interpretation report stored in the system memory, and the changed data is displayed on the character display unit (WS-CDISP) 1
It is displayed in the interpretation report creation area of 4h.

(2) When the correction is completed, the image interpretation doctor inputs an image interpretation end command from the input device (WS-INPUT) 14g.

(3) Controller (WS-CTRL) 14e
Displays a message prompting the user to input the image interpretation doctor ID number, and the image interpretation doctor inputs the image interpretation doctor ID number assigned to him. The controller (WS-CTRL) 14e is
It is checked whether the input interpretation doctor ID number exists in the interpretation doctor information table (see Table 13). If it exists, the image interpretation doctor name corresponding to the image interpretation doctor ID number is selected as the image interpretation doctor name to be added to the image interpretation report.

(4) Controller (WS-CTRL) 14e
Adds the data from the patient ID number to the interpretation date among the types of data included in the interpretation report shown in FIG. 31 to the findings and conclusions of the created interpretation report. Of these data, the data other than the image reading doctor name and image reading date are included in the examination history of the patient. The name of the image interpretation doctor is the one determined in (3) above. Also,
The interpretation date can be determined from the clock built in the workstation.

Then, when the image interpretation report is completed, this image interpretation report is transferred and stored in the following procedure.

(1) The control unit (WS-CTRL) 14e of the workstation WS-1 sends the completed image interpretation report to the network interface (WS-NWIF).
14n to instruct the system manager (SM) 11 to transfer the interpretation report. The network interface (WS-NWIF) 14n sends an image interpretation report to the system manager (SM) 11.

(2) Network interface (SM-NWIF) 11 of system manager (SM) 11
When the image interpretation report from the workstation arrives at h, the control unit (SM) of the system manager (SM) 11
-CTRL) 11a reads an image interpretation report from the network interface (SM-NWIF) 11h and writes it in the system memory of the control device (SM-CTRL) 11a. Further, the image interpretation report is transferred from the system memory to the image interpretation report storage device (SM-IDRM) 11f and stored therein.

This completes a series of operations from the acceptance of the inspection request information to the completion and storage of the image interpretation report.

In this way, in this embodiment, the image data is linearly converted by the image collecting means such as the DFR device,
An image output device such as a CRT provided in the workstation performs predetermined image processing on the linearly converted image data and displays the image data. Therefore, the image output device side can add the same process as the process for the original image, and it is possible to prevent the failure when the automatic density correction is performed. In addition, on the system disk of the DFR device, image collection conditions such as sampling pitch, film characteristic curve, ROI, contrast, stacker for outputting film, writing pitch, and number of copies,
Since the image output conditions can be collectively set, the setting operation becomes easy. Further, by setting the image acquisition condition and the image output condition, the film output condition and the CRT output condition can be unified, so that the technician can easily read the image.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In this embodiment, no means for linearizing the image data is used, and the image acquisition device transfers the image-processed image data to the database together with its associated information. At this time, the process of image processing is additionally described in the image accompanying information as shown in FIG. Before the image data and the image accompanying information are transferred to the workstation and image processing is performed in the workstation, the contrast of the image data once processed by the image acquisition device is returned to the minimum range and then converted into linear data. To this end, the workstation W
Concentration correction curve group data in S-SD14f (see FIG. 16)
have.

That is, if the data indicating the processing progress of the image data is transferred together with the image data, the image data receiving side can return the processed image data to the original image based on the processing progress. Thus, it becomes possible to perform processing on the original image. Other than that, it is the same as the above-described first embodiment.

In this way, in the second embodiment as well as in the first embodiment, the processing on the original image can be performed on the side of the image output device, so that failure in the automatic density conversion processing can be prevented. Will be able to.

[0226]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the image output means can process the original image, it is possible to prevent a failure in performing the automatic density correction process. Further, since the processing conditions in the image collecting means and the image output means can be collectively set, the setting operation becomes easy.

Further, since the film output condition and the CRT output condition can be made the same, the technician can easily read the image.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a PACS according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system manager (SM).

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a sampling pitch determination table.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a contrast determination table.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a stacker classification table.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a copy number determination table.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a film photographing device.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a DFR device.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a film identification code.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of creating a film identification code.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing exposure-density characteristics of a film.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a barcode display.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing detection of a barcode.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing information added to an image obtained by a DFR device.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing exposure-density characteristics according to the type of film.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing a density correction curve according to the type of film.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a ROI determination table.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a histogram of an image of each imaged region.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a write pitch determination table.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing the structure of a database (DB).

FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a workstation (WS).

FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of an image display manager.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a CRT screen after inputting image accompanying information.

FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram showing information added to the film output from the DFR device.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of image accompanying information.

FIG. 26 is a first explanatory diagram showing a characteristic of a pixel value after converting a contrast.

FIG. 27 is an explanatory diagram showing characteristics of pixel values before conversion of contrast.

FIG. 28 is a first explanatory diagram showing characteristics of pixel values after conversion of contrast.

FIG. 29 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a display example of each image display device.

FIG. 30 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of an inspection history.

FIG. 31 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the format of an image interpretation report.

FIG. 32 is an explanatory diagram showing an image processing progress table.

FIG. 33 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional DFR device.

FIG. 34 is an explanatory diagram showing a density correction curve.

FIG. 35 is an explanatory diagram showing an image histogram.

FIG. 36 is an explanatory diagram showing exposure parameters.

FIG. 37 is an explanatory diagram showing a difference in exposure-density characteristics due to a difference in film.

FIG. 38 is an explanatory diagram showing characteristics as a result of linearizing the exposure-density characteristics.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 system manager (SM) 12 image acquisition device (IA) 13 database (DB) 14 workstation (WS) 15 network 16 gateway 17 inspection order system 23a, 23b subject 25a, 25b X-ray tube 26a, 26b ultrasonic sensor 27 Cassette 28 Suction board 29 Magazine 53 Imaging information input device 53a ID terminal
59 Reference bar 60 Bar code 61 Search mark 65 Positioning mark 66 Identification code

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06F 19/00 G06F 15/62 390 A (72) Inventor Seiichiro Nagai 1385 Shimoishigami, Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture No. 1 In Toshiba Medical Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Koichiro Nabuchi 1385 Shimoishigami, Otawara-shi, Tochigi Prefecture 1 Stock company Toshiba Nasu Factory (72) Inventor Akira Tsukamoto 1385 Shimoishigami, Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture 1 Stock company Toshiba Nasu factory (72) Inventor Toru Saisu 1385-1 Shimoishigami, Otawara, Tochigi prefecture 1 Stock company Toshiba Nasu factory

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. At least one collection unit for collecting medical images, a transfer unit for transferring medical images, a storage unit for storing medical images, and an output unit for outputting medical images, each of which is provided. PA configured by connecting means in a complex manner
In CS, PACS, wherein image processing for the original image obtained by the collecting means can be executed by the output means. 2. At least one collection unit for collecting medical images, a transfer unit for transferring medical images, a storage unit for storing medical images, and an output unit for outputting medical images, each of which is provided. PA configured by connecting means in a complex manner
In the CS, the collecting unit includes a linearizing unit that linearly converts the exposure-density characteristics of the collected image data, and the output unit linearly performs image processing on the linearly converted image data. A PACS having a processing means. 3. The linearizing means stores a function having an inverse characteristic with respect to the exposure-density characteristic of each of the collected image data, and means for multiplying the inverse-characteristic function by the exposure-density characteristic function. The PACS according to claim 2, wherein the PACS is composed of: 4. At least one collection unit for collecting medical images, a transfer unit for transferring the medical images, a storage unit for storing the medical images, and an output unit for outputting the medical images are provided. PA configured by connecting means in a complex manner
In the CS, the collecting means includes means for applying desired image processing to the collected original image data, and conversion data for converting the processed image data back to the original image data. The output means includes means for converting the processed image data into an original image based on the conversion data, and means for applying desired processing to the original image. PACS that is characterized. 5. The film digitizing device according to claim 1, wherein one of the collecting means is a film digitizing device for converting an image photographed on an X-ray film into a digital grayscale image and performing image processing. PACS. 6. A collection means for collecting medical images, a transfer means for transferring the medical images, a storage means for storing the medical images, and an output means for outputting the medical images. PA configured by connecting means in a complex manner
The PACS, wherein the CS has means for collectively setting the processing conditions in the collecting means and the output means. 7. The PACS according to claim 6, wherein the processing condition is at least one of a sampling pitch during image collection, a contrast during image output, an output stacker, and the number of copies. 8. A collection means for collecting a medical image, a transfer means for transferring a medical image, a storage means for storing a medical image, and an output means for outputting a medical image, at least one each of which is provided. PA configured by connecting means in a complex manner
In CS, the collecting unit has a unit for adding desired image processing to the collected original image data, and a unit for adding processing conditions related to the processing to the processed image data as additional data. The storage means stores the processed image data with the processing condition attached thereto, and the output means compares the past image stored by the storage means with newly acquired image data. The PACS, further comprising: output processing means for processing new image data according to additional data attached to the past image. 9. The PACS according to claim 8, wherein the output processing means outputs a film output of a past image and a film output of a new image under the same processing condition. 10. The PACS according to claim 8, wherein the output processing means outputs the film output of the past image and the CRT output of the new image under the same processing condition. 11. The output processing means is a CR for past images.
9. The PACS according to claim 8, wherein the T output and the CRT output of the new image are output under the same processing condition.