JP5361548B2 - Medical image display device, medical image processing device, and medical image observation system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a medical image observation system which efficiently utilizes the resources of a personal computer on a client side without deteriorating performance of image display, by solving the problem of a load onto a server and resource shortage with resource concentration in a thin client system. <P>SOLUTION: The medical image reservation system is configured such that a medical image processor 10 and a medical image display device 20 are connected on a network. When receiving a request for image display from a user 40, a display image generation part A15 within the medical image processor 10 generates a display image and a transmission part 14 transmits it to the medical image display device. While transmitting the display image, an image data transmission part 18 transmits image data on the display image to the main memory B of the medical image display device 20. When finishing transmission of all the pieces of the image data, image data in the medical image processor 10 is deleted, and the display image generation processing is switched from the display image generation part A15 to a display image generation part B27. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a medical image display device, a medical image processing device, and a medical image observation system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a medical image processing device that displays a large amount of data such as three-dimensional or four-dimensional data on the server side. The present invention relates to a system including an image display device.

  In recent years, with the increase in the number of photographic images of modalities such as CT, the use of a plurality of images as three-dimensional (3D) images has become widespread, and explanation images to patients, preoperative and intraoperative It is used for various purposes such as simulation images. Conventionally, expensive high-performance 3D workstations were required to create and display 3D images, but with the widespread use of thin client technology, advanced 3D image processing is performed on the server side, and as a result, only images are displayed on the client. Thin client type 3D image systems that transmit to and display on the Internet have begun to spread.

  This 3D image system is composed of a medical image processing device and a medical image display device. A large amount of medical image data is stored in the storage of the medical image processing device, and is based on a request from the medical image display device. The medical image processing apparatus generates a display image from the image data, and transfers the generated display image to the medical image display apparatus (for example, see Patent Document 1 below).

JP-A-2005-312683

  A medical 3D image is used as an explanation of a medical condition to a patient or an intraoperative navigation image, and is often referred to for a relatively long time, and there is a problem that server resources are continuously occupied during that time. Further, it is necessary to read the image data into the main memory and process it with a medical image processing apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a server). In order to respond to requests from a plurality of medical image display apparatuses (hereinafter referred to as clients), it is necessary to simultaneously hold a plurality of image data on the work area of the main memory. In addition, there is an increase in the number of clients accompanying the widespread use of 3D images, and it is expected that the shortage of resources such as server memory and CPU will become serious in the future.

  On the other hand, in recent years, the performance of client personal computers used in medical image display devices has been improving year by year, and products equipped with a large-capacity main memory and a high-performance processor have become rare. This trend is expected to continue in the future, and in the future, it is estimated that image processing of large-capacity image data that could conventionally be performed only by a high-performance server can now be performed without difficulty on the client side.

  However, in order to perform image generation processing on the client side, it is necessary to transfer all image data from the large-capacity storage device (mainly hard disk) in the server to the client once, and wait until the transfer is completed. Problems arise. In the medical image information system, the responsiveness from the display request to the completion of the image is extremely important, so this delay is not allowed.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the adverse effects of the load on the server and the resource shortage accompanying the resource concentration, which are disadvantages of the thin client image system, and reduce the efficiency of the resource of the personal computer on the client side without degrading the image display performance It is to provide a medical image display device, a medical image processing device, and a medical image observation system that can be used practically.

That is, the present invention is to provide a medical image processing apparatus, in the medical image display apparatus connected by a communication network, input means for instructing an image processing on images data, based on the instruction, the medical an image processing Riyo determined with respect to the picture image data stored in the image processing apparatus, transmitting means for transmitting to the medical image processing apparatus, the first display image generated based on the previous Kiga image data wherein the image data receiving means for receiving from the medical image apparatus for image picture data received by said receiving means, for generating a second display image by performing image processing based on the request and The first display image is displayed in a period after reception of the first display image and before generation of the second display image, and with the generation of the second display image, the first display image is received . Display image Characterized in that it comprises a display control means for displaying is switched to the second display image.

The present invention is, with respect to the medical image display device, in the medical image processing apparatus connected via a communication network, receiving means for receiving an image processing request for images data that have been previously stored from the medical image display device If, based on the received image processing request and the image data by the receiving unit, a display image generating means for generating a display image, the medical image display device a display image image generated by said display image generating means and transmitting means for transmitting to, after transmitting the display image image on the medical image display apparatus in the transmitting means, characterized in that it comprises a control unit that controls to delete the image data.

Furthermore, the present invention is first transmitted to the first and the generating unit, the first medical image display device the first display image generated by the generation unit for generating a first display image based on the image data a first transmission portion, and a second transmission unit that transmits the pre-Symbol image data to the medical image display apparatus, a medical image processing apparatus and an image display request receiving unit for requesting desired image, A display unit that displays the first display image transmitted from the first transmission unit, a storage unit that stores image data transmitted from the second transmission unit of the medical image processing apparatus, and a storage unit In a medical image observation system having at least a medical image display device including a second generation unit that generates a second display image based on stored image data, each connected to a network. There are, the medical image processing apparatus, the first generate portion before Upon receiving an image request from the image display request receiving unit to generate the first display image, the second transmission unit, while sending the first display image in the first transmission unit, before sends outs image data to the medical image display apparatus, before outs when you have finished transmitting the image data to all the medical image display apparatus, to remove the previous Kiga image data of the medical image processing apparatus comprising a first control unit for controlling the said medical image display apparatus, the front Kiga image data at the time when finished all been received, the first display image generating processing which has been performed by the generation of the comprising a second control unit for controlling to switch to the second generation unit, wherein after the display image generation processing is switched by the second control unit, generated by the second generator the The display unit displays a second display image.

  According to the present invention, when referring to a medical image generated from large-capacity image data, a display image is generated on the server side and only displayed on the client side, so that a display request can be made in a short time. Images can be referenced.

  Accordingly, it is possible to avoid the problem of server resource concentration by switching the processing to the client side later while maintaining the merit of the processing on the server side that the image can be referred to in a short time.

It is a block block diagram which shows the basic composition of the medical image observation system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the specific block configuration for implement | achieving the medical image observation system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the medical image observation system 1 of one Embodiment of this invention, and demonstrating operation | movement in the case of producing | generating a display image by the server side. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the medical image observation system 1 of one Embodiment of this invention, and demonstrating operation | movement in the case of transferring image data from the server side to the memory on the client side. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the medical image observation system 1 of one Embodiment of this invention, and demonstrating operation | movement in the case of producing | generating a display image by the client side.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing a basic configuration of a medical image observation system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the medical image observation system 1 is connected to a medical image processing apparatus 10 and a plurality of medical image display apparatuses 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,.

Although not shown, the medical image processing apparatus 10 includes a storage device (hard disk) that stores medical image data used for CT and the like, a main memory, and the like. As described above, a plurality of medical image display devices 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,... Are connected to the medical image processing device 10 via a network.

The medical image display devices 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,... Include monitors 31 ₁ , 31 ₂ ,... That display medical images, and input devices (keyboard and mouse) that instruct the displayed image to change display conditions. Etc.) 32 ₁ , 32 ₂ ,... Are connected.

The medical image display apparatuses 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,... Can issue a medical image display request to the medical image processing apparatus 10. The medical image processing apparatus 10 having received the request, once the corresponding image data, generates a display image from read all in the main memory, the medical image display device 20 _1, 20 _2, and transmits to ....

The medical image display devices 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,... That have received the display image display the images received by the connected monitors 31 ₁ , 31 ₂ ,. When the display conditions are changed (transparency, color, etc., image rotation, enlargement / reduction, etc.) for the images displayed on the monitors 31 ₁ , 31 ₂ ,... A display image that meets the conditions is generated by the server 10 and transmitted to the medical image display devices 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,...

  That is, in the medical image observation system 1 having such a configuration, image data processing is performed as follows.

First, generating a medical image display device 20 ₁ of the display image in the medical image processing apparatus 10, 20 _2, while performed transmission ... to the image data in the main memory is the medical image display device 20 _1, 20 _2, ... Are transferred to a main memory (not shown). Next, when the image data on the work area of the main memory is transferred to the main memory of the medical image display devices 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,... By the medical image processing device 10, the main memory of the medical image processing device 10. And the work area on the memory is released (reservation of the work area on the memory is stopped). When the image data in the main memory of the medical image processing apparatus 10 has been transferred to the main memory of the medical image display apparatuses 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,..., It has been performed by the medical image processing apparatus 10 until then. display image generation processing medical image display device 20 _1, 20 _2, switched to ....

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific block configuration for realizing the medical image observation system.

As described above, in the medical image observation system 1, the medical image processing apparatus 10 and the plurality of medical image display apparatuses 20 are connected by a network. In FIG. 2, a plurality of medical image display devices 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,... Are representatively described as medical image display devices 20 for the sake of simplicity.

  The medical image processing apparatus 10 on the server side includes a database 11, an image data storage unit 12, an image display request receiving unit 13, a display image transmitting unit 14, a display image generating unit A15, and an image data reading unit 16. A main memory A17, an image data transmission unit 18, and a CPU 19.

  The database 11 manages information for specifying medical image data being managed, data storage locations, and the like. The image data storage unit 12 is a storage unit for storing medical image data. The image data storage unit 12 communicates with the database 11 to correct the database 11 when medical image data is stored, deleted, or changed. The image data storage unit 12 is not limited to these, and may be in a plurality of HDD or NAS images, that is, in another location.

  The image display request receiving unit 13 supplies the display request received from the image display request transmitting unit 23 described later to the display image generating unit A15. The display image transmission unit 14 transmits the display image generated by the display image generation unit A15 to the display image reception unit 24 described later.

  The display image generation unit A15 generates a display image according to the image display request received from the image display request reception unit 13. If the image data has not yet been read into the main memory A17, the image data reading unit 16 is instructed to read the image data. On the other hand, if there is already image data in the main memory A 17, a display image is generated based on this data and the display image is transmitted to the display image transmission unit 14.

  The image data reading unit 16 is for reading the image data stored in the image data storage unit 12 into the main memory A17. The image data may be a plurality of DICOM image files or a volume file collected in one file. The main memory A17 is a memory that temporarily holds image data stored in the image data storage unit 12.

  Further, the image data transmitting unit 18 is for transmitting the image data in the main memory A17 to the image data receiving unit 25 described later. Further, the CPU 19 constitutes a control unit for performing control operations, determinations, and the like of the respective units in the medical image processing apparatus 10.

  On the other hand, the medical image display device 20 on the client side includes an image display request receiving unit 21, an image display unit 22, an image display request transmitting unit 23, a display image receiving unit 24, an image data receiving unit 25, A memory B26, a display image generation unit B27, and a CPU 28 are included.

  The image display request receiving unit 21 receives an image display instruction from the user 40 (not only a display of a designated image but also a display condition change instruction thereafter (transparency, color map change, image rotation, enlargement / reduction, etc.)) Is transmitted to the image display request transmitting unit 23. After the display image creation processing is switched to the client side, the request content is notified to a display image generation unit B27 described later.

  The image display unit 22 is for displaying an image on a monitor. While the display image generation process is being performed by the medical image processing apparatus 10, the image received from the display image receiving unit 24 is displayed, and after switching to the medical image display apparatus 20, the image is received from the display image generating unit B27. Display an image. The image display request transmission unit 23 transmits a display request to the image display request reception unit 13 via the network.

  The display image receiving unit 24 supplies the display image received from the display image transmitting unit 14 to the image display unit 22.

  The image data receiving unit 25 is for storing the image data received from the image data transmitting unit 18 in the main memory B26. The main memory B26 is a memory that temporarily holds the image data transmitted from the medical image processing apparatus 10. The display image generation unit B27 generates a display image based on the image data on the main memory B26 and supplies the display image to the image display unit 22.

  Further, the CPU 28 constitutes a control unit for performing control operations and determinations of the respective units in the medical image display device 20.

Note that the medical image processing apparatus 10 and the medical image display apparatus 20 are configured by a personal computer in this embodiment. Further, in the basic configuration diagram of the system of FIG. 1, the medical image display devices 20 ₁ , 20 ₂ ,..., The monitors 31 ₁ , 31 ₂ ,... And the input devices 32 ₁ , 32 ₂ ,. The present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. 2, the medical image display device 20 may include an image display unit 22 and an image display reception unit 21.

  Next, the operation of the medical image observation system 1 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. Note that these control operations are mainly performed by commands from the CPU 19 and the CPU 28.

  First, an image display instruction operation in the medical image observation system 1 of the present embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation when a display image is generated on the server side.

  When this sequence is started, first, in step S1, the image display request accepting unit 21 in the medical image display apparatus 20 accepts an input operation for, for example, a three-dimensional image by a mouse operation (not shown) of the user 40. It is done. As a result, the image display request receiving unit 21 converts the image display request into an image display request and outputs the image display request to the image display request transmitting unit 23. Examples of the display request content described above include information for specifying a target image (StudyInstanceUID, SeriesInstanceUID), information for specifying display conditions (transparency, color map, viewpoint, enlargement / reduction, and the like).

  Next, in step S2, the image display request transmitting unit 23 transmits the display request content to the image display request receiving unit 13 on the medical image processing apparatus 10 side via the network (see FIG. 1). Then, in subsequent step S3, the information on the display request content received by the image display request receiving unit 13 is output to the display image generating unit A15.

  In step S4, it is determined whether the display request is a new image display or a display condition change. If the display request is a new display, the process proceeds to step S5, where the display image generation unit A15 instructs the image data reading unit 16 to read image data. Then, in subsequent step S6, the image data reading unit 16 obtains the storage location of the image data from the database 11, and the image data is read from the image data storage unit 12 and stored in the main memory A17.

  On the other hand, when the display request is a display condition change in step S4, steps S5 and S6 described above are skipped.

  In step S7, the display image generation unit A15 applies the image display condition to the image data in the main memory A17 to generate a display image. The display image generated here is output to the display image transmission unit 14. Next, in step S8, the generated display image is transmitted from the display image transmitting unit 14 to the display image receiving unit 24 on the medical image display device 20 side via the network.

  In step S <b> 9, the display image received by the display image receiving unit 24 is output to the image display unit 22. Then, in the subsequent step S <b> 10, the image output from the display image receiving unit 24 is displayed on the monitor of the image display unit 22.

  In this way, this sequence is completed.

  Next, the image data transfer operation in the medical image observation system 1 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation when image data is transferred from the server side to the client side memory.

  When this sequence is started, first, in step S21, the image data transmission unit 18 transfers the image data stored in the main memory A17 to the image data reception unit 25 on the medical image display device 20 side via the network. Sent. In step S22, the image data received by the image data receiving unit 25 is stored in the main memory B26.

  Then, in the subsequent step S23, it is determined whether or not all the image data has been transferred to the main memory B26. If the transfer has not been completed, the process proceeds to step S21. If the transfer has been completed, the process proceeds to step S24.

  In step S24, the image data transmission unit 18 on the medical image processing apparatus 10 side instructs the display image generation unit A15 to release the image data stored in the main memory A17 and end the image generation processing. Then, in step S25, the display image generation unit A15 releases the image data in the main memory A17, and the image generation process ends.

  Next, in step S26, the image data receiving unit 25 instructs the display image generating unit B27 to start the image generating process. Thereby, in step S27, the display image generation unit B27 starts the image generation process. At the same time, the image display request receiving unit 21 is instructed to switch the subsequent display request to the display image generating unit B27.

  Next, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5, the operation of the image display instruction in the medical image observation system 1 of the present embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation when a display image is generated on the client side.

  When this sequence is started, in step S31, the image display request receiving unit 21 receives an instruction to change the display condition for the currently displayed image by the user's mouse operation or the like, and the image display request information is included in the information. Converted. Here, examples of display request contents include information for specifying the target image as described above, information for specifying display conditions, and the like.

  Next, in step S32, the display condition is applied to the image data in the main memory B26 by the display image generation unit B27 to generate a display image. The generated display image is output to the image display unit 22. In step S33, the image obtained from the display image generation unit B is displayed on the monitor of the image display unit 22.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the image data on the main memory of the server is transferred to the main memory of the client and the image data is transferred while generating the display image and transmitting the display image to the client on the server. Delete the image data in the main memory of the server when it is completed, free up the work area on the memory, and display that has been performed on the server until the client has received all the image data By switching the image generation processing to the processing at the client, effective use of resources in the entire medical image observation system can be realized.

  This makes it possible to efficiently use the resources of the personal computer on the client side without degrading the image display performance.

  Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  Further, the above-described embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some constituent requirements are deleted from all the constituent requirements shown in the embodiment, or some constituent requirements shown in the embodiment are combined, it is described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention. When the problem can be solved and the effect described in the column of the effect of the invention can be obtained, the configuration from which this constituent requirement is deleted can be extracted as the invention.

  According to the present invention, the disadvantage of the thin client image system, which is the load on the server and the resource shortage due to the resource concentration, is solved, and the efficiency of the resource of the personal computer on the client side is reduced without degrading the performance of image display. Thus, a medical image display device, a medical image processing device, and a medical image observation system that can be used effectively are obtained.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Medical image observation system, 10 ... Medical image processing apparatus, 11 ... Database, 12 ... Image data storage part, 13 ... Image display request | requirement receiving part, 14 ... Display image transmission part, 15 ... Display image generation part A, 16 ... image data reading unit, 17 ... main memory A, 18 ... image data transmission _{unit, 19,28 ... CPU, 20,20 1,} 20 2, ...... medical image display device, 21 ... image display request receiving unit, 22 ... image Display unit 23 ... Image display request transmitting unit 24 24 Display image receiving unit 25 25 Image data receiving unit 26 26 Main memory B 27 Display image generating unit B 31 ₁ , 31 ₂ ,. ₁ , 32 ₂ ,... Input device.

Claims (3)

In a medical image display device connected to a medical image processing device via a communication network,
Input means for instructing an image processing on images data,
Based on the instruction, and transmitting means for the image processing Riyo determined with respect to the medical image processing apparatus the image image data stored in, and transmits to the medical image processing apparatus,
A receiving unit before the first display image generated based on Kiga image data and the image data, received from the medical image processing apparatus,
Against images data received by the receiving means, image processing means for generating a second display image by performing image picture processing,
The first display image is displayed in a period after the reception of the first display image and before the generation of the second display image, and from the first display image to the second display image as the second display image is generated. Display control means for switching to and displaying two display images ;
A medical image display device comprising: In a medical image processing apparatus connected to a medical image display apparatus via a communication network,
Receiving means for receiving an image processing request from the medical image display device for images data that have been previously stored,
A display image generating unit based on the received image processing request and the image data, generates a display image by the reception means,
Transmitting means for transmitting the display image image generated by said display image generating means to the medical image display apparatus,
After transmitting the display image image on the medical image display apparatus in the transmitting means, and control means for controlling so as to delete the image data,
A medical image processing apparatus comprising: A first generating unit that generates a first display image based on the image data, a first transmission unit that transmits the first of said first display image generated by the generation unit to the image display device medical, a second transmission unit that transmits the pre-Symbol image data to the medical image display apparatus, a medical image processing apparatus and an image display request receiving unit for requesting desired image, said first transmission section A display unit that displays the first display image transmitted from the storage unit, a storage unit that stores image data transmitted from the second transmission unit of the medical image processing apparatus, and image data stored in the storage unit. In a medical image observation system having at least a medical image display device including a second generation unit that generates a second display image based on each of the medical image display devices, each connected to a network,
The medical image processing apparatus, the first Generate section generates the first display image by receiving the image request from the image display request receiving unit, the second transmission unit, transmitting the first while sending the first display image in parts, at the time of sending the pre-outs image data to the medical image display apparatus, it has finished transmitting a pre-outs image data to all the medical image display apparatus, comprising a first control unit that controls to delete the pre Kiga image data of the medical image processing apparatus,
The medical image display device, the front Kiga image data at the time when finished all been received, and controls so as to switch the first display image generating processing which has been performed by the generation unit of the second generation unit A second control unit is provided, and after the display image generation processing is switched by the second control unit, the display unit displays the second display image generated by the second generation unit. Medical image observation system characterized by

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