JP2007229201A - Stereoscopic mammography apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve a precise inspection by a stereoscopic picture as simply as the conventional apparatus, since by the conventional mammography apparatus, an internal lesion is inspected by radioscopy in a state one of the mammas of a patient is pressurized, but a detailed video in an internal depth direction cannot be obtained. <P>SOLUTION: In this mammography apparatus, an X-ray light source is moved in a direction parallel to a face which the body of the patient faces, and a plurality of mammography pictures having different parallax angles in this direction are taken to obtain right and left stereo pictures. Moreover, they are vertically arranged as a vertical stereoscopic picture, and simple stereo glasses are used to simply obtain a stereoscopic view. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a stereoscopic mammography inspection system and apparatus.

In screening for breast cancer, a mammography device that examines breast lesions by fluoroscopy is the most important examination means.
A conventional mammography device projects and shoots X-rays of a subject's breast using an X-ray optical system that is configured to sandwich a compression plate on a light receiver that is set at a right angle to the projected X-rays and has an image capture function. Thus, a mammographic image was obtained as a planar two-dimensional (2D) screen. Actually, the structure in which the breast is sandwiched from above and below, and this X-ray optical system is rotated 90 degrees in the direction parallel to the surface of the subject's body (the direction parallel to the body) to the lateral position to make the side In order to increase the image information, the image is captured from two different positions on the top and bottom surfaces and the side surface.

  Furthermore, a device that oscillates a compression plate that compresses the breast of the subject and shifts the overlapping position inside the breast to make a more detailed diagnosis (for example, see Patent Document 1), or a mammography for performing a more accurate examination. However, a CT (computer tomography) method for assembling and diagnosing a three-dimensional structure by accumulating a large number of tomographic images has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Documents 2, 3, and 4).

JP2003-126073 JP2003-137441 JP2003-325499 JP2005-296647

However, in order to determine the minute lesions of the breast, it is necessary to crimp the breast as much as possible in order to reduce the thickness of the breast examination part. In the overlapping area, detailed images in the depth direction could not be distinguished, and accurate diagnosis could not be made. Therefore, in order to enable a more accurate diagnosis, a function for identifying this depth has been strongly demanded.
In addition, it is desired to be able to cope with a large amount of examinations as in the case of conventional normal mammographic diagnosis, and it has been similarly demanded that examinations can be easily and easily performed from the measurement output image data.

  The present invention realizes a technique for acquiring a mammographic image safely, easily and compactly as a stereoscopic image from which image information in the depth direction can be obtained while maintaining commonality with a conventional 2D mammographic image. By establishing a method for easily stereoscopically viewing images, the above-described problems have been solved.

  That is, in the present invention, the X-ray light source has a function of changing its position by rotating it by a fixed angle or moving it by a fixed distance in a direction parallel to (in parallel to) the body-facing surface of the subject. Thus, a three-dimensional mammography apparatus that obtains a three-dimensional screen by photographing a plurality of mammographic images corresponding to three-dimensional left and right screens with different parallaxes or adding an image with a different parallax angle to a normal 2D image is configured.

  The captured left and right 3D mammographic image is a horizontally long image, but if these are simply arranged side by side, it will be too wide to form a left and right 3D screen, and it will be difficult to create a 3D image by overlaying both screens. It becomes difficult to do it. For this reason, in the present invention, a three-dimensional screen configuration that is compact and easy to handle is realized by arranging the three-dimensional pair screen by arranging the horizontally long three-dimensional left and right mammograph screens vertically.

  For this vertically arranged stereoscopic screen configuration, a stereoscopic display can be easily viewed as a stereoscopic mammographic image on a normal display device by introducing a vertical stereoscopic method that superimposes this in the vertical direction and stereoscopically displays it. Made it possible.

By realizing the present invention, the three-dimensional configuration inside the subject for high-accuracy examinations that could only be examined with large-scale three-dimensional tomography (3D-CT) imaging by a large amount of tomography until now, A simple 3D mammographic image can be obtained simply by adding a single image to a conventional 2D imaging inspection, enabling high-precision 3D image inspection with safety and ease through almost the same inspection as before. became. Moreover, since it is not necessary to compress the breast excessively, the pain due to the compression at the time of the examination can be remarkably reduced at the same time.
The present invention has greatly promoted the widespread use of easy and more accurate mammographic inspections, and the present invention has made it possible to greatly promote this.

  The embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described based on examples.

First, in the conventional mammography apparatus, as shown in the side view of FIG. 2, the X-ray light source 1, the light receiver 2, and the compression plate 3 that crimps the breast B as the subject are mounted on the pedestal 13. X-rays are projected onto the breast of the subject by the X-ray optical system 11b relatively fixed by the support column 12b, and the image is taken as a planar 2D mammographic image. Although not shown here, the X-ray optical system 11b is rotated by 90 degrees about the rotation axis Y in a direction parallel to the subject's body (and hence in a direction perpendicular to the drawing in FIG. 2) to a lateral position. Thus, imaging from the side of the subject is also performed.
On the other hand, FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a stereoscopic mammography apparatus of the present invention as a first embodiment of the present invention. Here, FIG. 1 (a) shows a front view of the apparatus, and FIG. 1 (b) shows a side view of the apparatus.
That is, in the apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the X-ray optical system 11 supported by the support column 12 on the pedestal 13 in FIG. 1 is on a circular arc centered on the center P of the subject on the receiver 2, and in this example, from the center position XC formed by the arcuate moving rail 4 in a direction parallel to the subject's body by a fixed angle α. An X-ray light source moving mechanism having a function of moving to either the left or right position XL or XR is provided. Of course, these movements may be either left or right or both.
The movement angle α of the X-ray light source corresponds to the parallax angle when the object is stereoscopically viewed, and can be freely set to the optimum state according to the optimum parallax angle condition when examining as a stereoscopic image. Has been. For example, in order to match an object stereoscopically with both eyes from a distance of clear vision, the corresponding parallax angle may be set to about 16 degrees.
The X-ray optical system 11 can also perform three-dimensional imaging from the side by rotating 90 degrees in a plane parallel to the subject's body, as shown by the dotted arrow in FIG. .

As an actual stereoscopic screen shooting procedure, the first image taken before the X-ray light source moves corresponds to a conventional 2D mammographic image in which the X-ray optical system is relatively fixed. This is one of the 3D screens. Next, each of the captured images after moving the X-ray light source to the left or right is used as the left or right other screen, thereby obtaining a three-dimensional pair screen of left and right stereoscopic screens.
Here, with respect to the X-ray light source 1 in FIG. 1A, various directions and parallax angles can be obtained by combining the image at the original center position XC and the image at the position moved to the left XL or right XR. It is possible to observe a stereoscopic image at. In other words, the angle of the observation position is different in the combination of XL-XC or XC-XR, but the parallax angle in the combination of XL-XR is doubled and approaches half the distance. A stereoscopic image corresponding to viewing is obtained, which is useful for more detailed diagnosis.
Note that images handled in the present invention are two-dimensional 2D images even on a plurality of screens, and are completely different in principle from images obtained by assembling a three-dimensional image by accumulating a large number of tomographic image (tomographic) data handled by tomography. Is.

The X-ray light source moving mechanism according to the present invention is provided with a guide such as a rail that forms the above-mentioned arc with respect to the X-ray light source in this example, and is moved left and right along this guide. It may be a simple move.
As another X-ray light source moving mechanism, as shown in FIG. 3 as an X-ray optical system, a rotatable arm 5 that holds the X-ray light source 1 against a relatively fixed light receiving table and compression plate May be rotated and moved in the same manner by setting it to rotate along a plane parallel to the body.
Of course, if the center Ps of the rotation axis is different from the position of the center P of the subject at this time, the angle β (the rotation angle αs of the arm 5 and the parallax angle α to be set) so that the direction of the X-ray light source faces the subject. The angle is adjusted by the difference between the two. The function of moving the X-ray light source can also be realized by placing another X-ray light source at the position to be moved and switching and irradiating it.

In the method of the present invention, a conventional 2D mammographic image can be shared as a part of a stereoscopic image, and stereoscopic imaging can be easily performed by almost the same technique as conventional mammographic imaging, and both are highly common. In addition, when imaging with different X-ray irradiation angles is added for stereoscopic imaging, it has been devised so that X-ray exposure to the body does not increase excessively.
For this reason, in the X-ray light source moving mechanism set in the present invention, the movement is set in a direction parallel to the surface of the subject's body. This is the same direction as in the case of switching the imaging between the vertical position and the horizontal position of the subject in the conventional and the mammography apparatus of the present invention. There is no exposure to the body, and it is possible to shoot stereoscopic images while maintaining safety under the same conditions as conventional 2D mammography.
This is a conventional method of arranging the left and right screens horizontally when trying to easily stereoscopically view a mammograph image. In order to make stereoscopic viewing easier if the screen is composed of a vertically long screen with little horizontal spread. This is convenient, but in this case, it is necessary to set the stereoscopic parallax angle of the stereoscopic screen in a direction perpendicular to the body to shoot, so that X-rays are irradiated directly toward the body, which is dangerous. Therefore, in order to avoid this, the present invention has been devised as a configuration that facilitates stereoscopic viewing even with a horizontally long screen that avoids the danger of X-ray irradiation.

Here, the screen configuration in the present invention will be described.
First, FIG. 4 shows a state in which the subject's breast is sandwiched and set by the compression plate in the mammography apparatus of the present invention. Here, FIG. 4 (a) is a side view, and the breast of the subject is pressed during imaging as shown in the figure. FIG. 4B is a view seen from the top, which is the direction in which the image is taken, and corresponds to a screen that is actually taken. As shown in the drawing, since the subject is crushed, it tends to spread sideways when viewed from the body side of the subject, resulting in a horizontally long screen.
On the other hand, in the case of the method of the present invention, as described above, since the stereoscopic image is taken by moving the X-ray light source in the direction parallel to the body, the stereoscopic parallax of the mammograph screen is determined from the position where the breast is viewed from the body side of the subject. Therefore, in the present invention, the stereoscopic screen tends to be a horizontally long screen.
If you try to stereoscopically view this with the simple glasses that stereoscopically view this on the conventional left and right side-by-side screen, the configuration of the stereoscopic screen is such that this horizontally long screen is arranged longer and longer as shown in FIG. Since a 3D screen display of an extremely long and narrow belt-like screen is required, it becomes difficult to display the screen itself, and it is difficult to view the 3D images by overlapping both left and right screens.

For this reason, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6, the above-described stereoscopic left and right screens are introduced as a stereoscopic screen configuration and a screen display as a left and right stereoscopic pair screen of so-called vertical stereoscopic screens arranged vertically. did. As a result, the stereoscopic pair image of the present invention can be easily accommodated in the shape and size of a normal display screen even when it is a horizontally long screen when displayed on a screen or printed out.
For example, a standard 4: 3 display screen used for a normal TV, a camera, a PC screen, etc. can be configured as a panoramic 3D screen that spreads horizontally if it is divided into two vertically. By using it vertically and dividing it vertically into two, it is possible to configure so-called half-size two screens of 3: 2 screens that are horizontally long and similar in this one screen as a pair of three-dimensional screens.
That is, the introduction of the vertical stereoscopic screen configuration makes it possible to easily configure a horizontal stereoscopic screen regardless of the vertical and horizontal length of the display screen. Particularly in medical display devices, it is often used as a vertically long display screen, but it can be seen that the vertical stereoscopic screen composition method of the present invention is also suitable for this.

FIG. 7 shows a simple stereoscopic method for stereoscopically viewing the vertical stereoscopic screen according to the present invention with the vertical stereoscopic glasses 8.
Since this vertical stereoscopic screen 7LR can be displayed on the same normal display device 7 as a conventional 2D mammographic monitor display device, etc., the vertical axis optical refraction by a prism or mirror is used for these display output mammographic screens. By viewing with the simple vertical stereoscopic glasses, it is possible to easily stereoscopically view the display output image as it is as the stereoscopic mammograph image 9LR.
That is, FIG. 7 is a case of glasses using prisms, but here the images of the three-dimensional left and right screens 7L and 7R refracted by the vertical stereoscopic glasses 8 by the left and right prisms 8L and 8R are the left and right images, respectively. It is observed as a stereoscopic image 9LR in which the left and right screens overlap each other in front of the front of the stereoscopic glasses from the eyes.
In other words, wherever a normal 2D mammography inspection is performed by the method of the present invention, the vertical stereoscopic screen of the present invention is displayed on the screen and viewed with the vertical stereoscopic glasses, thereby simultaneously performing the stereoscopic mammography inspection easily. Made it possible to do.
Of course, these 3D pair screens are input to the various dedicated 3D display devices such as the liquid crystal shutter or liquid crystal filter system and various autostereoscopic systems from the 3D left and right screens constituting the 3D pair screens. 3D images can be displayed.
Furthermore, the present invention is similarly applied to an application that requires a three-dimensional image in the case where the X-ray light source is fixed and the X-ray light source is moved and the imaging screen is a horizontally long screen, such as X-ray imaging of teeth. It is possible to apply to.

The figure which shows this invention solid mammography apparatus. The figure which shows the conventional mammography apparatus. The figure which shows the other example of this invention X-ray light source moving mechanism. The figure which shows the state by which the subject was set to the apparatus with the compression board. The figure which shows the three-dimensional screen structure of the horizontally long screen in the conventional side-by-side three-dimensional system. The figure which shows the three-dimensional mammograph screen by the vertical-type three-dimensional screen of this invention. The figure which shows the stereoscopic vision system of the vertical stereoscopic screen in this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 X-ray light source
2 Receiver
3 Compression plate
4 Moving rail
5 arm
6 3D mammography screen
6L, 6R stereoscopic mammograph left and right screen
7 Display device
7L, 7R stereoscopic left and right screen
7LR vertical 3D screen
8 Vertical stereoscopic glasses
8K, 8R prism
9LR stereoscopic image
11, 11b X-ray optical system
12, 12b Prop
13 pedestal
B Subject's breast
L left
R right
P Subject center
Center of Ps arm rotation axis
Y rotation axis
XC center position
XL Left position
XR rightward movement position α Parallax angle αs Rotation angle β Correction angle

Claims (2)

The function of changing the position of the X-ray light source that irradiates the subject in a direction parallel to the surface of the subject's body, and changing the position of the subject has a different parallax angle in the direction and a landscape screen A function to capture possible mammographic images, a function to configure and display the captured left and right stereoscopic mammographic images as a vertically arranged stereoscopic pair screen, and superimpose this display screen up and down for stereoscopic viewing A stereoscopic mammography apparatus having a stereoscopic function. The 2D-compatible 3D mammography apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the 2D-compatible 3D mammography apparatus is configured by adding a function of changing the position of the X-ray light source in a direction parallel to the surface of the subject.

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