JP2019129989A - Medical image processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

To discriminate whether or not a medical image is a processing object image in a medical image processing device even when it is not possible to discriminate whether or not the medical image is a processing object image from incidental information related to the medical image transmitted from a server.SOLUTION: A control unit 31 of a medical image processing device 3 requests a medical image which is a candidate for a processing object of predetermined processing to an image server 2, discriminates whether or not the medical image is an image of the processing object of the predetermined processing by using at least image data of the medical image transmitted from the image server 2 in accordance with the request, and executes the predetermined processing for the medical image discriminated as the image of the processing object.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a medical image processing apparatus.

  Conventionally, a first medical image data input from the outside has been provided with a database that stores past image information including information on a patient, information on a region to be examined, and image specifying information used for specifying image data. By searching the database based on the incidental information, the past image information about the first medical image data and the second medical image data in which the patient and the examination target part are the same is acquired, and the acquired past image information A medical image information processing apparatus (medical image processing apparatus) that obtains second medical image data corresponding to the above from an external image server and performs a difference calculation between the first medical image data and the second medical image data. It is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In this medical image information processing apparatus, information related to a region to be examined is registered in a database based on incidental information of image data.

JP-A-2005-39701

  However, depending on the medical device, depending on the manufacturer and modality of the imaging device, the incidental information other than the specific incidental information such as patient information and modality information, for example, the incidental information regarding the imaging region and the imaging direction is blank or in the incidental information. There are cases where strings are not unified. For this reason, it may be difficult to determine whether or not the image is a processing target only with the accompanying information. For example, when only the front of the chest is targeted in the temporal difference processing, even if the imaging region (= chest) is known from the accompanying information, the front or side may not be uniquely determined. In particular, when a medical image processing apparatus is installed later on an image server in which image data has already been stored, various incidental data that are not standardized in the image server are included, and the above events occur frequently. .

  In order to solve such a problem, for example, it may be possible to unify all the incidental information in the image server by a serviceman or the like when installing the medical image processing apparatus. However, this takes a lot of time. Further, it is conceivable to learn the character string of the incidental information from the dictionary and unify the incidental information. However, if the incidental information is blank, correct incidental information cannot be given.

  The problem of the present invention is that even when the medical image processing apparatus cannot determine whether or not the medical image is the image to be processed from the incidental information related to the medical image transmitted from the server, the medical image is It is to be able to determine whether or not the image is a processing target.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 is provided.
Request means for requesting a server for a medical image that is a candidate for processing of a predetermined process;
Determining means for determining whether or not the medical image is a processing target image of the predetermined processing using at least image data of the medical image transmitted from the server in response to the request;
Processing means for performing the predetermined processing on the medical image determined to be the processing target image;
Is provided.

The medical image processing apparatus of the invention according to claim 2
Acquisition means for acquiring a first medical image;
Request means for requesting a server for a medical image that is a candidate for a second medical image to be processed in a predetermined process together with the first medical image;
Determining means for determining whether or not the medical image is a medical image to be processed by the predetermined processing using at least image data of the medical image transmitted from the server in response to the request;
Processing means for performing the predetermined process on the first medical image and the second medical image determined to be a medical image to be processed by the predetermined process;
Is provided.

The invention according to claim 3 is the invention according to claim 2,
The processing means performs predetermined arithmetic processing on the first medical image and the second medical image.

The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to claim 3,
The processing means performs a temporal difference process on the first medical image and the second medical image.

The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The determination unit determines at least one of an imaging region and an imaging direction of the medical image, and determines whether the medical image is a processing target image of the predetermined process based on the determination result.

The invention according to claim 6 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
In the case where it is possible to determine whether the medical image is an image to be processed by the predetermined process from the additional information of the medical image, the determination unit uses the additional information to determine whether the medical image is the predetermined image. It is determined whether or not the image is a processing target image, and if it is impossible to determine from the incidental information of the medical image whether the medical image is a target image for the predetermined processing, By analyzing the image data of the image, it is determined whether or not the medical image is an image to be processed in the predetermined process.

The invention according to claim 7 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
The request unit specifies at least one condition of patient identification information, imaging region, imaging direction, and imaging modality, and requests a medical image that is a candidate for a target of the predetermined processing from the server.

The invention according to claim 8 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
A transmission unit configured to transmit a processing result of the processing unit to the server;

The invention according to claim 9 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
Display means for displaying a processing result by the processing means.

The invention according to claim 10 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 9,
The processing result by the processing means is a numerical value or an image.

The invention according to claim 11 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 10,
A database is provided for associating and storing image identification information of the medical image and a discrimination result by the discrimination means.

The invention according to claim 12 is the invention according to claim 11,
Control means for controlling the medical image to be performed by the processing unit without performing determination by the determination unit for a medical image instructed to perform the predetermined processing from an external device.

The invention according to claim 13 is the invention according to claim 12,
The control unit associates image identification information of a medical image instructed to perform the predetermined process from the external device with information indicating that the medical image satisfies a condition of the image to be processed, in the database To save.

  According to the present invention, in the medical image processing apparatus, even if it is not possible to determine whether or not the medical image is an image to be processed from the incidental information related to the medical image transmitted from the server, the medical image is It is possible to determine whether the image is a processing target.

1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a medical image processing system in an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of the medical image processing apparatus of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the sequence of the time difference process performed in the medical image processing system of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the discrimination | determination process performed in step S7 of FIG. 3, and step S25 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the sequence of the radius reduction process performed in the medical image processing system of FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the scope of the invention is not limited to the illustrated examples.

<First Embodiment>
(Configuration of Medical Image Processing System 100)
First, the configuration of the first embodiment will be described.
FIG. 1 shows a system configuration of a medical image processing system 100 in the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, the medical image processing system 100 includes a modality 1, an image server 2, a medical image processing apparatus 3, a viewer 4, and the like. These devices 1 to 4 are connected to each other through a communication network N constructed in a medical institution such as a LAN (Local Area Network) so that data can be transmitted and received between them. The DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) standard is applied to the communication network N. The number of each device is not particularly limited.

Hereinafter, each component apparatus 1-4 is demonstrated.
The modality 1 is for photographing a human body and generating image data of the captured image (medical image). For example, CR (Computed Radiography), FPD (Flat Panel Detector), CT (Computed Tomography), MRI (Magnetic) Resonance Imaging) can be applied. In the present embodiment, the modality 1 is described as being a CR or FPD that captures a simple X-ray image, but other types of modalities may be included.

  The modality 1 is a device conforming to the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) standard, and various incidental information attached to the generated medical image, for example, patient information and examination information can be input from the outside. It can also be generated automatically. The patient information includes information such as patient identification information (for example, patient ID) for identifying the patient, patient name, sex, date of birth, and the like. The examination information includes information such as examination identification information (for example, examination ID) for identifying the examination, examination date, imaging region, imaging direction, modality information, and the like. The modality 1 transmits the generated medical image to the image server 2 and the medical image processing device 3 via the communication network N in the DICOM file format conforming to the DICOM standard.

  Here, the DICOM file is composed of an image portion and a header portion. The image part includes actual data (image data) of the medical image, and the header part includes additional information related to the medical image, for example, the patient information and examination information, and a UID (eg, SOP instance UID) for uniquely identifying the medical image. ) Etc. are written. Note that incidental information (eg, patient information, modality information, etc.) of TYPE1, which is an essential tag of the DICOM file, is always written according to the DICOM standard, but incidental information (eg, imaging region, imaging direction, etc.) of other items. ) Is not guaranteed and may not be attached to medical images.

The image server 2 is a computer device that accumulates, stores and manages image data of medical images generated by the modality 1 and incidental information related to medical images.
Specifically, the image server 2 includes a storage unit 21 configured with a hard disk or the like. The storage unit 21 stores a medical image DB (Data Base) 211 that stores image data such as medical images and difference images, and an additional information DB 212 that stores additional information related to images stored in the medical image DB 211 so as to be searchable. doing.
The image server 2 reads the medical image requested from the medical image processing device 3 and the viewer 4 from the medical image DB 211 and transmits it to the requesting device.

The medical image processing apparatus 3 is an apparatus that acquires a medical image from the image server 2 and performs various processes on the acquired medical image.
FIG. 2 shows a functional configuration example of the medical image processing apparatus 3.
As shown in FIG. 2, the medical image processing apparatus 3 includes a control unit 31, an operation unit 32, a display unit 33, a communication unit 34, and a storage unit 35, and each unit is connected by a bus 36.

The control unit 31 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like. The CPU of the control unit 31 reads out various programs such as a system program and a processing program stored in the storage unit 35, expands them in the RAM, and executes various processes according to the expanded programs. For example, the control unit 31 executes the process on the medical image processing apparatus 3 side of the temporal difference process shown in FIG.
The control unit 31 functions as a request unit, a determination unit, a processing unit, and a control unit.

  The operation unit 32 includes a keyboard provided with character input keys, numeric input keys, various function keys, and the like, and a pointing device such as a mouse, and a key press signal pressed by the keyboard and an operation signal by the mouse. To the control unit 31 as an input signal.

  The display unit 33 includes, for example, a monitor such as a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) or an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and displays various screens according to instructions of display signals input from the control unit 31.

The communication unit 34 is configured by a LAN card or the like, and transmits / receives data to / from an external device connected to the communication network N via a switching hub.
The communication unit 34 functions as an acquisition unit and a transmission unit.

  The storage unit 35 includes, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a semiconductor nonvolatile memory, or the like. The storage unit 35 stores various programs and various data as described above.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the viewer 4 includes a display unit, and acquires and displays a medical image designated by an operation of a radiogram interpretation doctor or a processing result thereof from the image server 2 or the medical image processing apparatus 3.

(Operation of Medical Image Processing System 100)
Next, the operation of the medical image processing system 100 will be described.
FIG. 3 shows a flow of the temporal difference process executed in the medical image processing system 100. Hereinafter, the flow of the temporal difference process will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the modality 1 transmits the generated medical image to the medical image processing apparatus 3 (step S1).

  In the medical image processing apparatus 3, when a medical image from the modality 1 is received by the communication unit 34, the control unit 31 acquires patient information from the incidental information of the received medical image (referred to as a first medical image). (Step S2).

  Next, in the medical image processing apparatus 3, the control unit 31 transmits the patient information (patient ID and the like) acquired from the first medical image to the image server 2 through the communication unit 34, and the processing target of the temporal difference processing is A request for a medical image of the same patient as the first medical image is made as a candidate image (step S3).

  In this embodiment, on the condition that the first medical image is a medical image of the same patient, a medical image satisfying this condition is requested to the image server 2. However, the medical image requested to the image server 2 is requested. The conditions are not limited to this, and other conditions (constraints) may be set. As described above, the supplementary information of the medical image does not guarantee data of items other than the supplementary information of TYPE1, which is an essential tag of the DICOM file. Therefore, it is preferable that the condition of the medical image requested to the image server 2 is a condition regarding the incidental information of TYPE1. However, information other than the essential tag may be included in the medical image condition requested from the image server 2, and candidate images are acquired within a range narrowed down to some extent by the supplementary information in the image server 2, and medical image processing is performed from the acquired candidate images. The apparatus 3 may finally determine an image to be processed. For example, when the condition of the image to be processed is the chest front image of the same patient, it is an image that is clear from the accompanying information that it is other than the chest front image of the same patient (patient ID of other patient and other imaging part) The image server 2 may be requested to request a medical image from which the imaging part information indicating this is excluded from the supplementary information). In this case, in addition to the front image of the chest of the same patient, a medical image of the same patient that has empty or unknown incidental information is transmitted from the image server 2. In this way, by adding a predetermined condition to the candidate image requested from the image server 2 in advance, it is possible to efficiently perform the determination process in the subsequent step S7.

  When the image server 2 receives the patient information and the request for the medical image from the medical image processing device 3, the image server 2 searches the medical image DB 211 for a medical image (patient image of the same patient) of the patient information that matches the received patient information (Step S1). S4) The medical image of the same patient extracted by the search is transmitted to the medical image processing apparatus 3 (step S5).

In the medical image processing apparatus 3, when a medical image is received from the image server 2 by the communication unit 34, the control unit 31 acquires the received medical image as a candidate image to be processed (step S6), and the candidate A discrimination process for discriminating whether or not the image is a processing target image of the temporal difference process is performed (step S7).
Here, the image to be processed in the temporal difference process is an image in front of the chest.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the determination process executed by the control unit 31 of the medical image processing apparatus 3 in step S7.

In the determination process, the control unit 31 refers to the supplementary information of the candidate image to determine whether the imaging region information is “empty or unknown” (step S71).
Here, “unknown” means that the character string in the tag of the header part is other than a previously registered character.

When it is determined that the imaging part information is not “empty or unknown” (step S71; NO), the control unit 31 determines whether or not the imaging part information of the incidental information is “chest” (step S72).
When it is determined that the imaging part information of the incidental information is not “chest” (step S72; NO), the control unit 31 determines that the candidate image is not a processing target (step S79), and proceeds to step S81. .
When it is determined that the imaging part information of the incidental information is “chest” (step S72; YES), the process proceeds to step S75.

  On the other hand, when it is determined in step S71 that the information of the imaging region is “empty or unknown” (step S71; YES), the control unit 31 determines that the candidate image is an image to be processed from the auxiliary information of the candidate image ( Here, it is determined that it is not possible to determine whether the image is a chest image), and a region determination process is executed using the image data of the candidate image (step S73). The image data referred to in the present application refers to pixel value data (pixel data) constituting an image, and does not include incidental information.

  In step S73, for example, it can be determined using a transfer learning model of AlexNet that is general in the deep learning classification problem. AlexNet is known, for example, as described in Reference Document 1 (Reference Document 1: https: //www.cs.toronto.edu~kriz/imagenet_classification_with_deep_convolutional.pdf). In addition, after performing preprocessing such as 8-bit normalization, histogram equalization, and image size reduction on the image data of the candidate image, a CNN (Convolution Neural Network) model having learned feature quantities for determining the imaging region The inference process may be executed to determine the imaging part of the candidate image.

When the region determination process ends, the control unit 31 determines whether or not the determination result is “chest” (step S74).
When it is determined that the determination result is not “chest” (step S74; NO), the control unit 31 determines that the candidate image is not a processing target (step S79), and proceeds to step S81.

  When it is determined that the determination result is “chest” (step S74; YES), the control unit 31 proceeds to step S75.

In step S75, the control unit 31 determines whether or not the shooting direction of the incidental information is “empty or unknown” (step S75).
When it is determined that the shooting direction of the auxiliary information is not “empty or unknown” (step S75; NO), the control unit 31 determines whether the shooting direction of the auxiliary information is “front” (step S76). .
When it is determined that the imaging part information of the incidental information is not “front” (step S76; NO), the control unit 31 determines that the medical image is not a processing target (step S79), and proceeds to step S81. .
When it is determined that the imaging part information of the accompanying information is “front” (step S76; YES), the control unit 31 determines that the candidate image is a processing target (second medical image) (step S76). S80), the process proceeds to step S81.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S75 that the shooting direction information is “empty or unknown” (step S75; YES), the control unit 31 determines that the candidate image is a processing target image (from the incidental information of the candidate image). Here, it is determined that it is not possible to determine whether the image is a front image), and the front / side determination process is executed using the image data of the candidate image (step S77).
The process in step S77 can be performed using, for example, a three-layer CNN. In step S77, for example, preprocessing such as 8-bit normalization, histogram equalization, and image size reduction is performed on the image data of the candidate image, and then feature quantities for separating the chest front and the chest side have been learned. Inference processing is executed in the three-layer CNN model to determine whether the candidate image is the front of the chest or the side of the chest.
It should be noted that the discrimination between the front of the chest and the side of the chest is performed by other known methods such as a discrimination method described in Reference 2 using a projection pattern indicating a change in the lateral density value of the image data. (Reference 2: Kei Kido, Hiroshi Takeuchi, “Automatic identification of lung front and sides”, Medical Imaging Technology, Vol. 9, No. 4 (1991)). Further, it is also possible to determine whether the image data of the candidate image is the front or side of the lung by using a general AlexNet transfer learning model in the deep learning classification problem.

When the front / side determination process ends, the control unit 31 determines whether or not the determination result is “front” (step S78).
When it is determined that the determination result is not “front” (step S78; NO), the control unit 31 determines that the candidate image is not a processing target (step S79), and proceeds to step S81.

  When it is determined that the determination result is “front” (step S78; YES), the control unit 31 determines that the candidate image is a processing target (second medical image) (step S80). The process proceeds to S81.

In step S81, the control unit 31 determines whether or not the processing of steps S71 to S80 has been completed for all received candidate images (step S81).
When it is determined that the processing of steps S71 to S80 has not been completed for all received candidate images (step S81; NO), the control unit 31 returns to step S71.
When it is determined that the processing in steps S71 to S80 has been completed for all received candidate images (step S81; YES), the control unit 31 proceeds to step S8 in FIG.

  With the above determination processing, it is possible to determine whether or not the image to be processed (second medical image) even if the information on the imaging part and the imaging direction of the incidental information of the candidate image is empty or unknown. Difference processing can be executed correctly.

  Returning to FIG. 3, in step S <b> 8, the control unit 31 performs a temporal difference process on the first medical image received from the modality 1 and the second medical image determined to be processed (step S <b> 8). . Specifically, the difference image is generated by taking the difference between the first medical image and the second medical image determined to be the processing target image.

Next, the control unit 31 transmits the generated difference image (processing result) to the image server 2 through the communication unit 34 (step S9). For example, the control unit 31 assigns a unique UID to the generated difference image, adds the UID, the UID of the medical image used when generating the difference image, and the like as incidental information, and transmits it to the image server 2.
When the image server 2 receives the difference image from the medical image processing apparatus 3, the image server 2 stores the received difference image in the medical image DB 211 (step S10). When the saving of the difference image ends, the temporal difference process in the medical image processing system 100 ends.

  Thus, in the first embodiment, the control unit 31 of the medical image processing apparatus 3 uses the image data of the candidate image transmitted from the image server 2 to determine whether the candidate image is a chest front image. If it is determined that the image is a chest front image, it is determined that the candidate image is an image to be processed. Then, a temporal difference process is performed using the first medical image and the second medical image, with the candidate image determined as the processing target image as the second medical image. Therefore, when the information on the imaging part and the imaging direction of the supplementary information of the candidate image is empty or unknown, it cannot be determined from the supplementary information whether the candidate image is a processing target image (second medical image). Even so, it can be determined whether or not the candidate image is a processing target image, and the temporal difference process can be correctly executed.

<Second Embodiment>
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Since the configuration in the second embodiment is the same as the configuration described in the first embodiment, the description will be referred to and the operation of the medical image processing system 100 in the second embodiment will be described below.

  FIG. 5 shows a flow of rib attenuation processing executed in the medical image processing system 100. Hereinafter, the flow of the rib attenuation process will be described with reference to FIG.

  The control unit 31 of the medical image processing apparatus 3 makes a request for a chest image to the image server 2 through the communication unit 34 in response to, for example, an instruction to execute the rib attenuation processing by the operation unit 32 (step S21).

  In the present embodiment, on the condition that the image is a chest image, a medical image that matches this condition is requested to the image server 2, but the condition of the medical image requested to the image server 2 is not limited to this, Furthermore, other conditions (constraints) may be set. For example, conditions relating to the examination date, patient information, modality information, etc. may be set.

When the image server 2 receives the chest image request from the medical image processing apparatus 3, based on the incidental information, the image server 2 removes from the medical image DB 211 a medical image excluding an image that can be clearly determined that the imaging region is other than “chest”. A search is performed (step S22), and the medical image extracted by the search is transmitted to the medical image processing apparatus 3 (step S23).
The image that can be clearly determined that the imaging region is other than “chest” is an image in which a region other than the chest is described as the imaging region information of the incidental information. In step S23, the imaging region of the incidental information is A medical image in which the imaging part of the supplementary information is empty or unknown is transmitted to the medical image processing apparatus 3 together with the medical image of the chest.
In the present embodiment, when a chest image request is received from the medical image processing apparatus 3, the image server 2 excludes an image that can clearly determine that the imaging region is other than “chest” based on the supplementary information. Is searched from the medical image DB 211, but the medical image is stored in the image server 2 on the condition that “the medical image excluding an image that can be clearly determined that the imaging region is other than“ chest ”” from the medical image processing apparatus 3 side. May be requested.

In the medical image processing apparatus 3, when a medical image is received from the image server 2 by the communication unit 34, the control unit 31 acquires the received medical image as a candidate image to be processed (step S 24). A discrimination process for discriminating whether or not the image is a processing target image of the rib attenuation process is performed (step S25).
Here, the image to be processed in the rib attenuation process is an image in front of the chest. In step S25, the control unit 31 executes the determination process shown in FIG. Since the determination process has been described in the first embodiment, the description is used. By the discrimination processing, it is possible to discriminate whether or not the image is the processing target even if the information on the imaging part and the imaging direction of the supplementary information of the candidate image is empty or unknown.

  Next, the control unit 31 performs a rib attenuation process (Bone Suppression process) only on the processing target image determined as the processing target (step S26).

Next, the control unit 31 transmits the medical image that has been subjected to the rib attenuation processing to the image server 2 through the communication unit 34 (step S27). For example, the control unit 31 assigns a unique UID to a medical image that has been subjected to rib attenuation processing, adds the UID, the UID of the medical image before processing, and the like as supplementary information, and transmits the additional information to the image server 2.
In the image server 2, when the medical image with the reduced ribs is received from the medical image processing apparatus 3, the received medical image is stored in the medical image DB 211 (step S28). When the storage of the medical image whose radius has been reduced is completed, the radius reduction process in the medical image processing system 100 ends.

As described above, in the second embodiment, the control unit 31 of the medical image processing apparatus 3 uses the image data of the candidate image transmitted from the image server 2 to determine whether the candidate image is a chest front image. If it is determined that the image is a chest front image, it is determined that the candidate image is an image to be processed. Then, the radius reduction process is performed using the candidate image determined to be the processing target image as the processing target image.
Therefore, even if the information on the imaging part and the imaging direction of the supplementary information of the candidate image is empty or unknown and it cannot be determined from the supplementary information whether the candidate image is a processing target image, the candidate image It is possible to determine whether or not is a processing target image.

  The first embodiment and the second embodiment of the present invention have been described above. However, the description in the above embodiment is a preferred example of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to this.

  For example, in the first and second embodiments, the storage unit 35 includes a DB (discrimination result storage DB) for storing the discrimination results in step S73 and step S77 in association with the UID of the candidate image. The control unit 31 may store the determination results in steps S73 and S77 in the determination result storage DB. The control unit 31 first searches the discrimination result storage DB with the UID of the candidate image before the discrimination processing of S73 and S77. If the discrimination result is stored in the discrimination result storage DB, the discrimination processing is performed. Instead, the determination result of the determination result storage DB may be used to determine whether or not it is a processing target. Alternatively, the control unit 31 may write the determination results in steps S73 and S77 to the supplementary information of the candidate image and transmit the result to the image server 2, and cause the image server 2 to update the information in the medical image DB 211 and the supplementary information DB 212. As a result, it is not necessary to repeat the same process again for a medical image whose imaging region and imaging direction have been determined once, and the processing speed can be increased.

  In addition, in the determination processing described in the first and second embodiments, the information that can be determined by the supplementary information is determined by using the supplementary information to determine whether it is a processing target, and cannot be determined by the supplementary information. Although it has been described that it is determined whether or not it is a processing target by analyzing image data, it may be determined whether or not it is a processing target by analyzing image data for all candidate images. When the determination result using the image data is different from the content of the incidental information, the control unit 31 displays a display prompting the user to correct the incidental information or alert the user on the display unit 33, or outputs it by voice or the like. It is good also as doing.

  In the first embodiment, the second medical image that is the target of the temporal difference process with the first medical image is determined, and the first medical image and the second medical image that is determined as the processing target are determined. Although the temporal difference process is performed on the medical image, the process performed on the first medical image and the second medical image is not limited to the temporal difference process.

  For example, when the first medical image is a chest front image, the medical image of the same patient is requested to the image server 2 to obtain a candidate image, the obtained candidate image is subjected to a discrimination process, and is a chest side surface The candidate image is determined to be the second medical image to be processed, and the first medical image and the second medical image are subjected to predetermined processing (for example, two images are displayed on an external device such as the viewer 4). It is good also as performing the process etc. which transmit by a set.

  Also, for example, a candidate image is obtained by requesting the image server 2 for a medical image generated by the same type of modality as that of the first medical image, and imaging region and / or imaging direction determination processing is performed on the acquired candidate image. The first medical image and the second medical image are determined by determining that the same imaging region as the first medical image and / or an image determined as the imaging region is the second medical image (group). It is good also as performing a similar image search process using.

  Further, in the second embodiment, a candidate front is obtained by requesting the image server 2 for the front of the chest, the discrimination processing is performed on the obtained candidate image, and the candidate image is processed when it is the front of the chest. Although it has been described as an example where the rib attenuation process is performed by determining that it is the target image, not limited to the rib attenuation process, for example, lesion detection process, bone density measurement process, fracture prediction process, failure determination process, It is good also as performing a body movement detection process etc.

  Further, in the determination processing in the first and second embodiments, it is determined whether or not the candidate image is a chest front image, and when it is determined that the candidate image is a chest front image, the image is determined to be a processing target image. However, the condition of the image to be processed is not limited to this. For example, at least one of the imaging part and the imaging direction of the candidate image may be determined, and it may be determined whether the image is a processing target based on the determination result. In the above-described embodiment, the case where the medical image is the chest has been described as an example, but another imaging region may be used.

  In the first and second embodiments, the processing results (for example, the difference image and the rib attenuation processing have been performed) performed on the processing target image (excluding the processing for transmitting the image to the external device). The image, lesion position, bone density value, etc.) have been described as being transmitted to the image server 2, but the processing result may be displayed on the display unit 33. As a result, the medical image processing apparatus 3 can confirm the processing result.

  Further, in the medical image processing apparatus 3, an execution of a predetermined process (for example, the temporal difference process of the first embodiment or the rib attenuation process of the second embodiment) is instructed from an external apparatus such as the viewer 4. Is transmitted (when input), the control unit 31 controls to perform the predetermined process without determining whether or not the medical image is an image to be processed for the predetermined process. It is preferable. Since the medical image instructed to execute the predetermined process from the external device is a medical image that satisfies the condition of the processing target of the predetermined process, the medical image satisfies the condition of the processing target of the predetermined process. This is because it is not necessary to determine whether or not.

  In addition, when a medical image is transmitted in response to an instruction to execute a predetermined process from an external device, the UID of the medical image and information indicating that the processing target condition for the predetermined process is satisfied (for example, the predetermined process is over time) In the case of the difference processing, it is preferable to store in the above-described determination result storage DB in association with the imaging region = the chest front, etc. When the candidate image is acquired from the image server 2, the control unit 31 searches the determination result storage DB with the UID of the candidate image, and when the determination result is stored in the determination result storage DB, the above-described operation is performed. Instead of performing the determination process of step S73 or step S77, it may be determined whether or not it is a processing target using the determination result of the determination result storage DB. As a result, it is not necessary to perform a discrimination process on a medical image that is clearly an image to be processed, and the processing speed can be increased.

  In the first and second embodiments, the case where the subject part is the chest has been described as an example. However, the present invention may be applied to medical images obtained by photographing other parts.

  For example, in the above description, an example in which a hard disk, a semiconductor nonvolatile memory, or the like is used as a computer-readable medium of the program according to the present invention is disclosed, but the present invention is not limited to this example. As another computer-readable medium, a portable recording medium such as a CD-ROM can be applied. A carrier wave is also applied as a medium for providing program data according to the present invention via a communication line.

  In addition, the detailed configuration and detailed operation of each device constituting the medical image processing system can be changed as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

100 Medical Image Processing System 1 Modality 2 Image Server 21 Storage Unit 211 Medical Image DB
212 incidental information DB
3 Medical Image Processing Device 31 Control Unit 32 Operation Unit 33 Display Unit 34 Communication Unit 35 Storage Unit 36 Bus

Claims (13)

Request means for requesting a server for a medical image that is a candidate for processing of a predetermined process;
Determining means for determining whether or not the medical image is a processing target image of the predetermined processing using at least image data of the medical image transmitted from the server in response to the request;
Processing means for performing the predetermined processing on the medical image determined to be the processing target image;
A medical image processing apparatus comprising: Acquisition means for acquiring a first medical image;
Request means for requesting a server for a medical image that is a candidate for a second medical image to be processed in a predetermined process together with the first medical image;
Determining means for determining whether or not the medical image is a medical image to be processed by the predetermined processing using at least image data of the medical image transmitted from the server in response to the request;
Processing means for performing the predetermined process on the first medical image and the second medical image determined to be a medical image to be processed by the predetermined process;
A medical image processing apparatus comprising:   The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing unit performs predetermined arithmetic processing on the first medical image and the second medical image.   The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processing unit performs a temporal difference process on the first medical image and the second medical image.   The determination unit determines at least one of an imaging part and an imaging direction of the medical image, and determines whether the medical image is an image to be processed in the predetermined process based on the determination result. Item 5. The medical image processing apparatus according to any one of Items 1 to 4.   In the case where it is possible to determine whether the medical image is an image to be processed by the predetermined process from the additional information of the medical image, the determination unit uses the additional information to determine whether the medical image is the predetermined image. It is determined whether or not the image is a processing target image, and if it is impossible to determine from the incidental information of the medical image whether the medical image is a target image for the predetermined processing, The medical image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the medical image processing apparatus determines whether the medical image is a processing target image of the predetermined processing by analyzing image data of the image.   The request unit specifies at least one condition of patient identification information, an imaging region, an imaging direction, and an imaging modality, and requests a medical image to be a candidate for a processing target of the predetermined processing from the server. The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 6.   The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a transmission unit that transmits a processing result obtained by the processing unit to the server.   The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit that displays a processing result obtained by the processing unit.   The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing result by the processing unit is a numerical value or an image.   The medical image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10, further comprising a database for storing image identification information of the medical image and a determination result by the determination unit in association with each other.   12. A control unit that controls a medical image for which execution of the predetermined process is instructed from an external device to perform the predetermined process by the processing unit without performing determination by the determination unit. The medical image processing apparatus described in 1.   The control unit associates image identification information of a medical image instructed to perform the predetermined process from the external device with information indicating that the medical image satisfies a condition of the image to be processed, in the database The medical image processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the medical image processing apparatus is stored.

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