JP2791887B2 - Radiation image information reading and displaying device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a radiation image information reading and displaying apparatus for reading and displaying radiation image information stored and recorded in a stimulable phosphor.

-Background of the Invention-Conventionally, X-ray photography has been used to obtain radiographic images. This method easily obtains a fluoroscopic image inside a subject, and has been widely used as an extremely powerful method, particularly in the field of diagnosis in medical treatment. However, this method has a small difference in the X-ray transmittance of each tissue in the human body, a low contrast of an image obtained because the X-rays are scattered in the subject, and a problem that the X-rays are harmful to the human body. However, there are drawbacks such as narrow latitude and severe shooting conditions. To compensate for these drawbacks, a high-sensitivity, wide latitude X-ray detector is used to convert X-ray images into electrical signals and perform image processing to reduce the effect on the human body and produce high-quality images. How to get it has been explored.

As an example of such radiography, radiation transmitted through a subject is absorbed and accumulated in a certain phosphor, and then the phosphor is excited with a certain energy, and the phosphor is accumulated. A method has been considered in which radiation energy is emitted as fluorescent light, and the fluorescent light is detected and imaged.

As a specific method, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,527 and JP-A-55-12144, radiation image conversion using a stimulable phosphor as a phosphor and electromagnetic radiation selected from visible light and infrared light as excitation energy is used. A method has been proposed.

In this method, a radiation image conversion panel having a stimulable phosphor layer formed on a support is used, and the stimulable phosphor layer of the radiation image conversion panel absorbs radiation transmitted through a subject, thereby reducing the intensity of the radiation. By accumulating the corresponding radiation energy and then scanning this stimulable phosphor layer with stimulating excitation light, the accumulated radiation energy is extracted as a light signal, and an image is obtained by the intensity of this light. is there.

This final image may be reproduced as a hard copy or reproduced on a picture tube such as a CRT.

The stimulable phosphor includes radiation (X-ray, α-ray, β-ray,
(γ-rays, ultraviolet rays, etc.) means a phosphor that emits photostimulated light in response to radiation energy stored in the phosphor when excited with a certain energy such as light or heat after irradiation. .

The radiation image conversion panel having a stimulable phosphor-containing layer here means a plate (panel), a drum or a flexible film having a stimulable phosphor layer surface. Various forms are generically referred to (hereinafter simply referred to as conversion panels).

Said method has the very practical advantage of being able to record images over a very large radiation exposure area compared to conventional radiographic systems using silver halide photography. That is, it has been recognized that the amount of radiation exposure in the conversion panel and the intensity or the amount of stimulated emission emitted by the stimulated excitation light after accumulation of the radiation are proportional to a very wide range. Even if the exposure amount fluctuates greatly, the reading gain of the stimulated emission is set to an appropriate value, read by a photoelectric conversion unit, converted into an electric signal, and a recording material such as a photographic light-sensitive material using the electric signal. By outputting a visible image on a display device such as a CRT, a radiation image that is not affected by a change in the radiation exposure amount can be obtained.

According to this method, the radiographic image stored and recorded in the conversion panel is converted into an electric signal, and then subjected to appropriate signal processing, and the electric signal is used to display a recording material such as a photographic photosensitive material or a CRT. By outputting the image as a visible image to the apparatus, an extremely great effect that a radiation image with excellent diagnostic adequacy can be obtained can be expected.

-Problems to be Solved by the Invention-However, as described above, in order to eliminate the influence due to the fluctuation of the influence condition or the like, or to obtain a radiation image having excellent diagnostic adequacy, recording of the radiation image accumulated and recorded in the conversion panel. It is indispensable to perform appropriate signal processing on the radiation image based on the display of a visible image for observation and interpretation of image information such as a state, a part of a subject, or an imaging method such as a simple contrast.

As a method for extracting image information of a radiation image stored and recorded on a conversion panel prior to the display of such a visible image, a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-50180 is known. This method is based on the finding that the light intensity or the amount of instantaneous light emitted from the conversion panel when the conversion panel is irradiated with radiation is proportional to the radiation energy stored and recorded in the conversion panel, by detecting the instantaneous light emission. The purpose is to extract image information of a radiographic image, perform appropriate signal processing based on this information, and obtain a radiographic image excellent in diagnosis. According to this method, it is possible to perform an appropriate signal processing on the radiographic image, to eliminate the influence of a change in imaging conditions and the like, and to obtain a radiographic image with excellent diagnostic adequacy. The radiation irradiator is composed of a plurality of members, and since the radiation irradiator and the radiation image reader are usually separated from each other in position, a signal transmission system must be configured between them. However, there is a drawback that the apparatus becomes complicated and an increase in cost cannot be avoided.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-116340 discloses that a non-stimulable phosphor is provided in the vicinity of a conversion panel, and the light emitted from the non-stimulable phosphor is detected by a photodetector when recording a radiation image and converted. A method for extracting image information of a radiation image recorded on a panel is disclosed. However, this method is disclosed in
In addition to the drawbacks of the method disclosed in No. 50180, the stimulable phosphor itself is not used as an object of the extraction means, so that the image information is only indirectly estimated, and the information thus obtained is obtained. There is a drawback that the reliability for is low.

Further, as a method of extracting image information of a radiation image recorded on a conversion panel before displaying a visible image, a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-67240 is also known. In this method, prior to a reading operation for obtaining a visible image for observation reading (hereinafter referred to as main reading), the conversion panel is used by using stimulating excitation light having an energy lower than that of the stimulating excitation light used in the operation. A reading operation (hereinafter, referred to as pre-reading) for extracting image information of a radiation image recorded in the computer is performed, and appropriate signal processing is performed based on the information to obtain a radiation image excellent in diagnosis. Things. However, in this method, the closer to 1 the stimulating excitation light energy in the pre-reading and that in the main reading are, the smaller the amount of radiation energy remaining and stored in the main reading, the lower the stimulating excitation light energy in the pre-reading. Must be lower than that in the main reading, so that the spot system of the stimulating excitation light in the pre-reading is enlarged, the intensity of the stimulating excitation light is reduced, the scanning speed of the stimulating excitation light is increased, or the conversion is performed. It is necessary to take measures such as increasing the moving speed of the panel, and there is a disadvantage that the structure of the radiation image reading apparatus becomes extremely complicated. Further, in this method, for the above-described reason, the stimulating excitation light energy in the pre-reading needs to be significantly lower than that in the main reading, and the stimulating luminescence generated by the pre-reading is very weak. is there. For this reason, it is difficult to extract the image information with sufficiently high precision by pre-reading, or in order to extract the image information with sufficiently high precision, the detectability of the stimulated emission detection system in pre-reading is significantly improved. There were drawbacks such as the need to do so. Furthermore, in this method, even if the toughness excitation light energy in the pre-reading is set sufficiently lower than that in the main read-out, it is difficult to avoid the dissipation of the accumulated radiation energy, and as a result, the luminance emitted during the main read-out by the pre-reading is reduced. There is a serious drawback that the intensity of emitted light or the amount of light is reduced and the system sensitivity is reduced.

On the other hand, there is also known a method completely different from the above-mentioned method. In this method, the radiation image stored in the conversion panel is read and temporarily stored in an image storage device, and then the radiation image signal stored in the image storage device is subjected to arithmetic processing to obtain image information of the radiation image. Is extracted, and appropriate signal processing is performed based on this information to obtain a radiographic image excellent in diagnostic appropriateness.

However, in this method, since it is necessary to temporarily store the radiation image in the image storage device and further perform the arithmetic processing, it takes a long time for the arithmetic processing, it takes time from reading of the radiation image to display thereof, and the real-time property is poor. Had serious drawbacks.

Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 62-97533, a method for improving the real-time property by providing an image extracting means for grasping the state of an image from reading the image to storing the image is also disclosed. I have.

This method uses real image data and enables real-time processing, and is an extremely accurate method. However, high-speed processing is required in synchronization with the reading of image data, and since image data reaches a maximum of 5 million pixels, a simple process of creating a histogram requires only 23-bit calculation accuracy. Since it is required, a normal microcomputer cannot be used, and dedicated hardware is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a display capable of grasping the state of an image with a small amount of data processing almost at the same time when a radiation image is captured on a conversion panel. It is an object of the present invention to provide a radiation image information reading and displaying apparatus which is reduced in cost and size.

-Means for solving the problem- In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a reading unit that reads a radiation image conversion panel on which a radiation image is recorded to obtain image data, and the image that is read in accordance with the reading of the radiation image. Display means for displaying an image based on the data; means for obtaining an image processing condition corresponding to the radiographic image from a characteristic amount of the image data; and processing the image displayed on the display means almost simultaneously with the end of the reading. A reading unit that obtains image data by reading a radiographic image conversion panel on which a radiographic image is recorded, and a displaying unit that displays an image based on the read image data. A display unit, and a unit that obtains an image processing condition corresponding to the radiation image from a feature amount of the image data, During reading of the image data, an image based on the image data is sequentially displayed on an image display unit, and an image processing condition corresponding to the radiation image is obtained from a feature amount of the image data by a unit for obtaining the image processing condition. The present invention proposes a radiation image information reading / displaying device.

-Example-Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a radiographic imaging apparatus according to the present invention, which is shown in the case of a chest radiographic apparatus. Radiation source 21
Radiation is applied to the radiation conversion panel 23 through the chest region of the subject 22. The radiation conversion panel 23 is mounted on the front surface of the radiation image information recording / reading unit 24, and includes a light beam unit 41 using a semiconductor laser in the radiation image information recording / reading unit 24.
(This may be a gas laser or a solid-state laser), an optical scanner 42 for irradiating the radiation conversion panel 23 with a light beam from the light beam unit 41 and scanning the photoelectric conversion panel 23, and a photoelectric conversion for detecting photostimulated light emitted from the radiation conversion panel 23. The container 43 is provided. The photoelectric converter 43 includes a condenser 43a made of an optical fiber, a filter 43b that passes only light in a photostimulated emission wavelength region, and a filter 43b.
It is composed of a photomultiplier 43c that converts light passing through to an electric signal. Next, in the radiation image information recording / reading unit 24, a current − that converts an output current from the photoelectric converter 43 into a voltage signal is used.
It includes a voltage converter 44, a logarithmic amplifier 45 for logarithmically amplifying the voltage signal of the current-voltage converter 44, and an A / D converter 46 for converting the output of the amplifier 45 into digital data. A / D converter
Numeral 46 obtains, as 10-bit conversion data, a range of three digits of photostimulated light in order to convert the image of a wide dynamic range of the radiation conversion panel 23 as faithfully as possible. The radiation image information recording / reading unit 24 further includes a control circuit 47 for inputting data from the A / D converter 46. The control circuit 47 controls the light beam intensity of the light beam unit 41, Power supply
Photomultiplier gain adjustment by power supply voltage adjustment of 48, gain adjustment of current-voltage converter 44 and A / D converter 46, and A / D converter
The input dynamic range of 46 is adjusted, and the read gain of radiation image information is adjusted comprehensively.

Next, the control unit 25 is computer-controlled,
The central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 50 is a system bus S
B and the image bus VB are combined with the following processing elements. The image display means (image monitor) 51 is connected to the CPU via the display control unit 51a.
The frame memory 52, which is connected to the storage unit 50 and serves as a storage unit, is connected to the CPU 50 via a frame memory control unit 52a. The information input means 53 includes a keyboard 53a and an LCD display means 53b, and is connected to the CPU 50 via an interface 53c. The reading synchronization unit 54 includes a reading control unit 54a coupled to the CPU 50, and an X-ray adapter coupled to the reading control unit 54a.
A drive circuit 10 for the radiation source 1 and a control circuit 47
And combined with. 56 is I / O for external equipment not shown
An interface 57 is a magnetic disk controller for the magnetic disk device 58 (or an external optical disk device or magnetic tape device), and 59 is a memory. Note that the CPU 50 can also be connected to an external terminal.

 The operation of such a device is described below.

The identification information of the subject 22 to be X-rayed is input from the keyboard 53a of the control unit 25. The identification information includes an ID number, a name, a date of birth, a sex, an imaging part, an imaging date and time, and the like. However, the shooting date and time may be automatically inserted by the calendar clock built in the CPU 50, or if the ID information is managed by an external device, it may be sent from it and only the collation may be performed. It may be. Alternatively, only the collation may be performed by receiving the input from the external terminal. Further, the identification information input here may be only information relating to the patient to be imaged at that time, or a series of information may be input in advance, and the imaging may be sequentially performed later. The identification information is input, and the subject 22 is set at the shooting position to perform shooting.

When the shooting button is pressed, the CPU 50 instructs the reading control unit 54a to start reading. The reading control unit 54a controls the driving circuit 10 via the X-ray adapter 54b, and instructs the radiation source 21 to perform X-ray imaging. The radiation source 21 is thereby
Irradiation (X-rays) is directed toward. This radiation passes through the subject 22, energy is accumulated in the stimulable phosphor layer of the radiation conversion panel 23 in accordance with the radiation transmittance distribution of the subject 22, and a latent image of the subject 22 is formed there. Thus, the X-ray imaging is completed.

When the X-ray imaging is completed, the light beam unit 41 generates a light beam whose beam intensity is controlled, and the light beam is transmitted to the optical scanner.
The light is changed in 42 and is changed in the optical path by the reflecting mirror, and is guided to the radiation conversion panel 23 as excitation scanning light. Radiation conversion panel
At 23, stimulated emission light is used to output stimulated emission light proportional to the latent image energy. The photoelectric converter 43 detects the stimulated emission light and outputs a current signal corresponding to the incident light.
This output current is supplied to the current-voltage converter 44, the amplifier 45, the A / D
The data becomes digital image data via the converter 46, is applied to the control circuit 47, and is transferred to the control unit 25.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the configuration of the reading control unit 54a in the control unit 25. The reading control unit 54a includes an input switch SW1 and an output switch S that are switched in synchronization with each other.
It is composed of W2 and line buffers A and B composed of RAM having a storage capacity of 2048 pixels. Here, line buffer A,
B corresponds to one line in the main scanning direction of the image data. When the image data of the first line from the radiation image information recording / reading unit 24 is stored in the line buffer A, the input switch SW1 and the output switch SW2 are switched, and the image data of the second line is stored in the line buffer B. . At the same time, the image data of the first line of the line buffer A is output and sequentially stored in the frame memory 52 via the image bus VB. Input / output switch SW1, S for each line
W2 is switched and the line buffers A / B change roles.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the configuration of the frame memory 52. The frame memory 52 is constituted by a RAM having a storage capacity of 2048 * 2560 pixels. Radiation image information recording and reading unit 2
The image data converted in 4 and temporarily stored in the line buffers A / B is stored in the frame memory 52 line by line. At the same time, the image data stored is stored in the image bus VB.
Is transferred to the display control unit 51a or to the magnetic disk control unit 57.

When image data is transferred from the frame memory 52 to the display control unit 51a, the image data is read out from the frame memory 52 every four pixels in both the main scanning and sub-scanning directions, and is continuously written to the display memory in the display control unit 51a. Go out. This is the CR for display
Since T has only a display resolution of 512 pixels * 640 pixels,
Both main and sub are intended to thin out to 1/4. When transferring image data from the frame memory 52 to the magnetic disk control unit 57, the image data is continuously read from the frame memory 52,
The data is continuously written to the FIFO memory in the magnetic disk control unit 57. As described above, the frame memory control unit 52a has the configuration shown in FIG. 1 in order to make the frame memory 52 accessible by thinning or continuous access.

In the figure, basically, the read / write timing of the entire frame memory 52 is generated in a frame memory timing control circuit 61, and a main scanning direction address generator 62 in the X axis direction and a sub scanning direction address generator in the Y axis direction are generated. 63 designates the address of the frame memory 52 to be accessed, and data is read or written via the image bus VB. The main scanning direction address generator 62 has the same configuration except that it has 11 bits corresponding to 2048 pixels, and the sub-scanning address generator 63 has 12 bits corresponding to 2560 pixels.

Here, a case where reading is performed every four pixels will be described. First, the CPU 50 assigns the address of the first pixel position to the I / F logic 64.
To the latch circuit 65 and the latch circuit 66. Next, the CPU 50 latches +4, which is the increment of the address, with the latch circuit 67.
And the latch circuit 68. Then, the CPU 50 sets the read flag and the X-direction addition flag of the command latch in the frame memory timing control circuit 61, and instructs the start of data transfer.

With this command, the frame memory timing control circuit 61
First, the first pixel position data of the latch circuits 65 and 66 are set in the latch circuits 71 and 72 through the multiplexers 69 and 70, these latch data are switched by the multiplexer 73, and the frame memory address is generated through the buffer 74. Let it. When the head pixel data based on the frame memory address is read, the frame memory timing control circuit 61 switches the multiplexer 69 to the adder / subtractor 75 side. The adder / subtractor 75 performs addition / subtraction of the latch data of the latch circuits 67 and 71, and pixel position data obtained by adding the increment of the latch circuit 67 + 4 to the current value of the latch circuit 71 for each timing signal from the frame memory timing control circuit 61. Is set in the latch circuit 71. With this control, the frame memory timing control circuit 61 performs +4 increment control of the main scanning direction address generator 62 every time one pixel data is transferred. When the transfer of one line is completed, the sub-scanning direction address generator 63 is operated in the same manner as the operation of the main scanning direction address generator 62 every time the transfer of one line is completed, and +4 incremental control is performed. Further, the frame memory timing control circuit 61 supplies the RAS and CAS signals to the DRAM frame memory 52 every time one pixel is read, and also controls the refresh operation. With the above-described control, it is possible to obtain image data in which the captured image is thinned to 1/4. Latch circuit when changing the thinning rate
This is achieved by changing the set values of the latch 67 and the latch circuit 68. For example, when the set value to the latch circuit 67 and the latch circuit 68 is +1, continuous access is performed, and the latch circuit 67
When the set value to the latch circuit 68 is +1 and the set value to the latch circuit 68 is +1, the left-right inverted image can be read.

The image data read from the frame memory 52 is
The data is transferred via the logic 77 and the image bus VB.
In 0, transfer management is performed line by line, and if transfer to the magnetic disk control unit 57 becomes necessary during transfer to the display control unit 51a, the address at that time is stored at the end of transfer of the line,
The transfer is performed by setting an address of the frame memory to be transferred to the magnetic disk control unit 57, an increment value, and a command. Then, the address, increment, command, and the like stored at the end of the transfer are reset, and the transfer to the display control unit 51a is restarted. Although this causes an overhead in setting to the latch and the register and lowers the effective speed, it is extremely infrequent compared to the image transfer, and apparently enables parallel operation.

Also, during the reading operation, the control circuit 47 of the radiation image information recording / reading unit 24 sends the frame memory 52 to the frame memory 52.
Are transferred in parallel to the above to the display control unit 51a or to the magnetic disk control unit 57, but the display on the image display means 51 and the data storage in the magnetic disk device 58 are performed almost simultaneously with the completion of reading. .

At the end of reading, the CPU 50 sets the leading address in the latch circuits 65 and 66, sets +32 in the latch circuits 67 and 68, and transfers the data to the buffer memory in the magnetic disk control unit 57. The number of pixels at this time is 64 * 64
That is a total of 4096 pixels. This is a form in which pixels are thinned out to 1/32 in both main and sub scanning, and pixels are trimmed into a square. Using this image data, the CPU 50 obtains the cumulative frequency distribution of the image, obtains the image processing conditions that are the optimum display characteristics of the image, and changes the contents of the display look-up table in the display control unit 51a. Thus, 1 /
The present inventor has found that although the number of pixels is reduced to 32 (the number of pixels is 1/1024), the feature values such as the maximum value, minimum value, and median value of the image and the cumulative frequency distribution hardly change from the original image data. It has been found that the use of this phenomenon greatly simplifies the operation, so that even a 16-bit microprocessor can make a determination with almost no time delay in obtaining the optimum display characteristics of an image. 6 (A) to 6 (H) illustrate the cumulative frequency distribution and the frequency distribution characteristics at each thinning rate. As can be seen from this example, even when compared with the cumulative frequency distribution of the original image data (FIG. 6 (A)), the cumulative frequency distribution (FIG. 6 (F)) thinned out every 32 pixels has almost the same shape. Therefore, there is no problem in estimating the image state using this.
Further, even if an image with a thinning rate higher than that is used (FIGS. 6 (G) and 6 (H)), the estimation is not so disturbed, which is effective both in hardware and processing time.

6 (D) and 6 (E), even if a 16-bit CPU is used, the processing time does not become much longer, and is comparable to the estimation using the original image data. Processing can be performed, which is effective.

It should be noted that, in the case of an X-ray image, the information of the peripheral portion of the image has little influence on the whole, and even if the upper and lower portions are extracted as an image extraction region, the characteristics are hardly lost. In such a case, the reading control of only the central part and the reading image is 2048 * 25
When it becomes considerably smaller than 60 pixels, the thinning rate is 31, 30,
.. Can be easily adjusted by changing the latch data, such as reading within the range of the image area.

As an example, when reading a pixel of 2048 pixels in the main scan and 2464 pixels in the sub-scan, the upper and lower parts are omitted by 208 lines each.
Extraction data of 64 * 64 pixels can be obtained by thinning out an image of 048 * 2048 pixels by 1/32. This is because the extraction is completed 200 lines or more before the reading is completed, then the cumulative frequency distribution is calculated, the maximum value, the minimum value, the median value, etc. are calculated, and the optimal characteristics for the image which is the image processing condition Even if the lookup table data is created, all the calculations can be completed before the reading is completed. This can be achieved by changing the display look-up table in the display control unit 51a.
This means that CRT images can be observed with optimal display characteristics almost simultaneously with the end of reading.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the display control unit 51a. The image data passing through the image bus VB is sequentially written to the display memory 81 through the data buffer 80. This display memory 81
Has a storage capacity of 512 * 640 pixels of 10-bit data. The data stored in the display memory 81 is 10 bits (1024 levels)
Are sequentially transferred to a display look-up table 82 for converting the data into 8-bit data, changed into 8-bit data and compressed, and this data is converted into analog data by a D / A converter 83, and further amplified by an amplifier 84. Then, it is converted into a video signal for CRT and given to a CRT display. The display memory 81 is subjected to write / read control by a memory control circuit 85, and the display control circuit 86 performs overall display control such as data transfer control and generation of a synchronization signal. Commands for these controls are given from the CPU 50 through the system bus SB and the I / F logic 87.

 The display control having such a configuration will be described below.

The display changes at that time due to the rewriting control of the display look-up table 82 by the CPU 50. Therefore, the CPU 50 erases the image that has been displayed by giving an erasure command to the display control circuit 86 at the start of photographing. This is dual port RAM as display memory 81
And by writing black data from the read port side, it can be completed in one frame display time. Here, when erasing the display memory 81, the display lookup table is used.
In 82, linear table data is written as image processing conditions. This allows the entire area of the image data to be observed on the display during reading, thereby enabling a capture of a shift in a photographing position and an approximate feeling of the image data. For example, the radiation image information recording / reading unit 24 sets the three-digit range of X-ray dose to 10
The digital image data is obtained by quantizing the data into bits, but the effective range is actually about 1.5 digits, and it is determined whether the image data exists at a level of 10 bits (0 to 1023).
Be able to observe with T. From this observation, it is possible to confirm whether or not the image is located near the white or black level due to a setting error of the photographing condition, and it is possible to immediately determine whether or not re-imaging is required.

By processing the extracted image data, the display image of the CRT is changed to an image having an appropriate gradation almost at the same time when the reading is completed, and is made an image having good diagnostic performance. At this time, if the irradiation field or the photographing conditions of the photographing are largely different from those of the normal case, the image may not be sufficiently satisfied with the preset gradation characteristics. In this case, the tone can be changed by scanning the tone control function key on the keyboard 53a. That is, since the density of the X-ray image and the gamma value, which is its inclination, are important, the two parameters are digitally adjusted by changing the two parameters using the display look-up table 82.

From the above, it is possible to confirm an image immediately after photographing and to observe an image having a desired gradation.

Further, when observing an image in detail, it is possible to enlarge and pan the image using the enlargement of the keyboard 53a and the panning function key. The image can be enlarged by reducing the thinning rate and transferring the data from the frame memory to the display memory 81.In panning, the read start address of the display memory 81 is shifted by the amount to move the image, and the image is newly displayed on the CRT. This is realized by transferring only the image that is to be displayed. In order to enable this control, the display memory 81 is configured to be endless in both the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction.

Further, when the image is horizontally inverted by the photographing method, the image can be corrected by performing the left and right inversion of the image using the left and right function key. In addition, when there is an input error in the subject name, the date of birth, or the like, correction using the keyboard is possible.

When the above-described checking operation is completed, the process proceeds to the next photographing. At this point, all the data is determined, and the data can be transferred to an external device. Further, after a certain period of time after the operator stops performing the operation without taking the next image, the data can be automatically determined to enable automatic transfer to an external device.

The above-mentioned external device may be an upper host computer, or a film printer for recording an image, or both. In the case of the host computer, the image data is divided into a plurality of blocks, one block at a time, read from the magnetic disk control unit 57, transferred to the buffer memory in the external device interface via the image bus VB, and sent to the host computer. It is realized by transferring. In the case of a film printer, the CPU 50 first sets a look-up table in the interface to resemble an image observed on a CRT. Then, the image is transferred and printed.

The external device is a high-speed processing device whether it is a host computer or a film printer.
Since the image data is transferred while being read from the magnetic disk device 58, the execution speed may be significantly reduced, or the transfer may not be in time. To solve this problem, it is possible to improve the execution speed by further increasing the frame memory 52 for one screen and switching between reading and transferring.
Further, for the image that has been transferred to the external device, the management information of the magnetic disk device 58 is deleted and the magnetic disk device 58 is deleted.
Can be prevented from overflowing.

-Effects of the Invention- As described above, according to the present invention, the read image data is displayed on the display means in parallel with the transfer to the frame memory, and a part of the image data is extracted and processed. A display image is obtained almost at the same time as reading, an image state can be grasped with a small amount of data processing, and a highly diagnostic image can be displayed almost at the same time as the reading is completed. In addition, the effect of reducing the cost and size of the control device is obtained. is there.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a control circuit diagram of a frame memory according to the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a display control circuit diagram of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a device configuration diagram of a radiation image information reading and displaying device, FIG. 4 is a block diagram of timing control in a control unit, and FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a frame memory. FIG. 6 is a measurement diagram showing a change in a histogram with respect to a thinning rate of image data. 21 radiation source, 22 subject, 23 conversion panel, 24
…… Radiation image information recording / reading section, 25 …… Control section, 51a …… Display control section, 52 …… Frame memory, 52a…
.., A frame memory control section, 61, a frame memory timing control circuit, 62, a main scanning direction address generator, 63, a sub-scanning direction address generator, 81, a display memory, and a display look-up table.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-56-88191 (JP, A) JP-A-59-88675 (JP, A) JP-A-57-161780 (JP, A) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03B 42/02 A61B 6/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A reading unit that reads a radiation image conversion panel on which a radiation image is recorded to obtain image data; a display unit that displays an image based on the image data in response to reading the radiation image; Means for obtaining an image processing condition in accordance with the radiation image from the characteristic amount of; and changing means for changing an image displayed on the display means based on the processing condition almost at the same time as the end of the reading. Reading display device. 2. A reading means for reading a radiation image conversion panel on which a radiation image is recorded to obtain image data; a display means for displaying an image based on the read image data; Means for obtaining an image processing condition corresponding to an image, wherein during reading of the radiation image, the image based on the image data is sequentially displayed on an image display means, and the image data is obtained by the means for obtaining the image processing condition. An image processing condition corresponding to the radiation image from a characteristic amount of the radiation image information.