JP2727814B2 - Human body cross-sectional image registration mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mechanism for aligning a human body cross-sectional image, and more particularly to a mechanism for aligning a human body cross-sectional image by a radiotherapy image processing technique based on CT and MRI images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 7, a conventional positioning tube for cross-sectional imaging can have a sufficient shape in a cavity or a cavity space on a CT / MRI imaging apparatus such as butter or cheese. A temporary packing of material was used.

[0003]

In this conventional positioning tube, a plurality of tubes are stuck on the surface of a human body in a body axis direction almost in parallel, and CT and MRI images can be taken. When rotating about the body axis, this rotation angle can be calculated from the imaging of the alignment tube, but the displacement in the body axis direction cannot be calculated because there is no scale to measure the difference in the displacement in the body axis direction. Therefore, even if you try to find the same surface from different images and try to superimpose them, there is no other way but to pay attention to the image itself,
In the case of heterogeneous images, the recognition of internal organs is different,
Accurate alignment was not possible.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The positioning mechanism of a human body cross-sectional image according to the present invention is recognized as a minute tube which is linearly arranged on the surface of a human body in the direction of the body axis and is adhered on an image by CT or MRI. Pack the first substance that can be formed, and further tape the substance consisting of the second substance different from the first substance within a distance enough to recognize the range with the body movement distance (about 5 cm) as a guide on the inner diameter. A tube as a position marker that can be recognized in the direction of the body axis by arranging it in a shape, or as a position marker, a minute cylinder with a different diameter is sequentially arranged in the line direction of the tube in a stepwise manner and repeated Either a tube, or a microtube that repeats the shape as a series (one set) with a cross section of different cross sections such as circle, diamond, square, and triangle as a position marker, or a position marker Different densities n1 is the first material in the minute space that concentric columnar as chromatography, n2, ......, nm
A micro-tube that arranges micro-mutants and repeats it, and means for recognizing the tube on each body ring from CT or MRI heterogeneous images taken by attaching a plurality of the tubes on the human body surface, It has a means for recognizing a position marker on the inner diameter of the tube, a means for calculating a relative inclination and a relative position from n pieces of image information, and a means for correcting the position of different kinds of images and superimposing them.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a microtube which is an important part of the configuration of the present invention. The microtube 1 is made of a material like a catheter, and is a soft tube of substantially the same quality as a vinyl tube. Even if the microtube 1 is attached to the surface of a patient's body on a CT / MRO image, the microtube 1 is sufficiently shaded to confirm its existence. Although it can be projected, the cavity 2 is filled with a first substance made of the same material or another material capable of enhancing the shadow, and the inside diameter has the length of the body movement distance (about 5 cm) of the human body. And a diameter a2 of the side of the head, the electron density is different from the first substance, and the material is made of a second material. As a result, when the microtube 1 is attached to the surface parallel to the patient's body axis as shown in FIG.
The minute fluctuation in the body axis direction can be read from the tapered condition.

That is, in FIG. 2, three micro tubes 5, 6 and 7 on the surface of the human body of the patient 4 are stuck in parallel to the body axis 8, and the plane continuously imaged as a CT slice is on the body axis. Suppose that the vertical planes are 9, 10 and 11 cross-sections, and that one of the slices of the image reconstructed as an MRI slice has a cross-section such as 12. It is assumed that the cross section 10 is a CT image and the cross section 12 is an MRI image in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the calculation processing of the present invention, and FIG. 3 and FIG.
The outline of the calculation process will be described. In the CT image of FIG. 3, the tubes 6, 7, 8 are recognized as the tubes 13, 14, 15 by the means 25 for recognizing the tube on the body ring, and are made of a tapered second substance in the tube. The position markers 16, 17, 18 are recognized by the means 26 for recognizing the position markers on the inner diameter of the tube. From these diameters, the shape of the conical taper is known in advance, and if the start position of this shape is known, there are three tubes whose relative position from the start position can be read. If the beginning of the conical taper is at the same position with respect to the body axis 8 and the CT slice is perpendicular to the body axis, the diameter of the position markers 16, 17, 18 will be the same. If it is not perpendicular, the position markers 16, 1 are offset by the body axis.
The sizes of 7, 18 are different. By “means for calculating relative inclination and relative position from n pieces of information” 27, the relative variable is calculated by detecting the marker position from the n slice images.

[0007] Similarly, the MRI image of FIG.
The position markers 22, 23 and 24 are recognized by means 26 for recognizing the position markers 21 at the inner diameter of the tube. For the position markers 22, 23, and 24, the relative inclination and relative position are calculated from the n pieces of information. Here, a CT image and an MRI image are superimposed on one of the images, in this case, an organic medical image. When information is to be extracted, image processing for correcting the relative inclination of the MRI image to the same slice position and relative inclination as the CT image is performed using a group of n MRI images. It is a schematic diagram showing the pattern.
The RI image 12 is found by calculation to be a slice image having a tilt angle of θ with respect to the body axis 8 and a distance of, for example, g (cm) to the start point 29A, and the CT image 10 is assumed to be a slice image having the body axis 8
If the slice image is determined to be a slice image that is perpendicular to
As a means for superimposing the MRI image 12 on the CT image 10, a reconstructed image 31 is obtained from the slice images 29 and 30 adjacent to the MRI image and the MRI image 12 by a distance g ′ from the start point exactly equivalent to the CT image 10 and a body axis 8. , It is possible to overlap as an image in the same space as the CT image. This is performed by means 28 of FIG.

FIG. 8A shows an important part of the structure of the present invention, which relates to a micro tube, which is a micro tube described in the claims. When the body movement distance of the human body is about 5 cm, 1 /
A cylinder 30 having a height of about 2 mm and having a diameter of 0.3 mm at the beginning and a cylinder 31 having a diameter of 0.4 mm and a height of 2 mm is sequentially thickened so that correction can be performed with an accuracy of 25. This is a microtube in which a step-shaped position marker up to a cylinder having a diameter of 1 to 2 mm is formed of a second substance and is repeatedly mounted on the microtube. Also in this case, similarly, positional deviation information is obtained with an accuracy of 2 mm, and superposition with a heterogeneous image is performed by a calculation process.

FIG. 8B relates to a micro tube which is an important part of the structure of the present invention, and shows the micro tube described in claim 3, wherein a cylindrical column 33 having a diameter of 0.2 mm and a rhombic column are used as position markers. 34, square pole 35, triangle pole 3
6 are joined at a height of about 1 mm to 2 mm, and as a repetition, a cylinder 37, a rhombus pillar 38, a square pillar 39, and a triangular pillar 40 are similarly formed so as to have a diameter of 0.3 mm by 1 mm to 2 m.
are joined at a height of m, and then a position marker is formed by sequentially repeating a pattern of cylinders 41 so as to have a diameter of 0.4 mm.

FIG. 8C shows a microtube as an important part of the structure of the present invention, which is a microtube described in claim 4, wherein a chain of a substance having a slightly different electron density is formed as a position marker. I have. A cylinder 42 made of a material having a density n1 different from the first material, a cylinder 43 made of a material having a density n2, a cylinder 4 made of a material having a density of nm
4 and the repetition of this pattern. 8A and 8B, information is drawn as position marks and the calculation process is performed.

[0011]

As described above, according to the present invention, a marker that can serve as a positional information source is enclosed in a conventional cavity or a catheter-like micro tube made of a substance, so that the CT can be mounted on the surface of a human body. Position information and indirect tilt information can be obtained directly from images such as MRI and MRI images, and it is possible to obtain image information that is important in radiology on anatomical figures. There is an effect that the obtained images of the same human body can be combined and superimposed on an arbitrary position.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram when the present invention is mounted on the surface of a human body.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a CT image cross-sectional image.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an MRI image crossing image.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of a calculation process;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of a calculation process;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a microtube according to the prior art.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing another structure of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Microtube 2 Cavity 3 Cone 4 Patient 5-7 Microtube 8 Body axis 9-11 CT slice plane 12 MRI slice plane 13-15 Microtube limbus image on CT image 16-18 Position mark image 19-21 Microtube limbus image on MRI image 22-24 Position mark image 25-28 Calculation processing function block 30-32, 33-41, 42-44 Position mark image

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A micro-chamber which is linearly arranged on the surface of a human body in the direction of the body axis and adhered to the micro-chamber, which can be recognized on images obtained by CT (Computerized Transverse Imaging Apparatus) and MRI (Transverse Imaging Apparatus by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). The first substance is packed, and a substance made of a second substance different from the first substance is arranged in a tapered shape within a distance enough to recognize the range with the body movement distance of the human body as a guide to the inner diameter. A heterogeneous image such as a CT and MRI image obtained by attaching a plurality of tubes to the surface of a human body and photographing the tube with a human body cross-sectional image capturing tube as a position marker capable of recognizing deviation in the body axis direction. Means for recognizing a tube on the body ring from each, means for recognizing a position marker on the inner diameter of the tube, means for calculating the relative inclination and relative position from n pieces of image information, A positioning mechanism for a human body cross-sectional image, comprising means for correcting positions of each other and overlapping each other. 2. Micro-columns having different diameters are sequentially arranged in a step-like manner in the axial direction of the tube as position markers in the micro-tube, and a second column is located within a distance enough to recognize the range by using a body movement distance of a human body as a standard. 2. The human body cross-sectional image alignment mechanism according to claim 1, further comprising a microtube arranged as a material and configured by repeating these arrangements. 3. A series (one set) of cross-sections having different cross-sections, such as circles, diamonds, squares, and triangles, as position markers in the microtube, and the range is determined by using the body movement distance as a guide. 2. The human body cross-sectional image positioning mechanism according to claim 1, further comprising a microtube which is arranged as a second substance within a distance enough to recognize the microtube and is repeated. 4. A density n different from the first substance in a concentric cylindrical space as a position marker in the microtube.
1, n2,..., Nm are arranged in stages within a distance enough to recognize the range using the body movement distance as a guide, and a microtube in which these arrangements are repeated is provided. 2. The mechanism for positioning a human body cross-sectional image according to claim 1, wherein: