KR20090075555A - Reading aid method of digital test images - Google Patents

Abstract

A reading support method of digital test images is provided to reduce time consumption and inconvenience due to repetitive computer operation by simplifying a key operation. A reading standby list of digital test images is formed(S11). A plurality of digital test images are displayed(S13). An abnormality indicator is provided to the test image having the lesion site among displayed test images(S15) The test images without the abnormality indicator are classified to the normal test images(S17). The test images with the abnormality indicator are displayed(S19). The digital test images are the digital thorax images obtained by radiography. The abnormality indicator is an arrow, a figure, or a read code.

Description

Reading aid method of digital test images

The present invention relates to a method for supporting reading of digital inspection images, and more particularly, to a method for supporting reading of digital inspection images having a site in which a lesion is suspected.

Chest X-rays are basically performed in the hospital and during the examination. In particular, in large hospitals, chest X-rays are performed as a routine test for screening for patients at the time of general hospitalization, as well as during surgery or outpatient examination, even if the patient is not a lung disease patient. In chest clinics, normal chest X-rays use 14x14-inch or 14x17-inch films; for mass health screenings, roll film is used in large quantities, and doctors use roll film readers. It has been read using.

Recently, digital chest imaging has been obtained through computerized radiography (CR) and digital radiography (DR) instead of conventional film images. Digital chest imaging is a digital examination image that typically requires a variety of storage capacities from 8MB to several tens of megabytes.

The imaging system or viewer software currently used to read digital examination images is not suitable for reading large amounts of chest images. The reason is that one inspection image should be displayed and read by a doctor or the like and then the operation of displaying and reading the next inspection image by repetitive key operation. In particular, since a large amount of chest X-rays, such as group health examinations, are mostly for the general public in the workplace or group, most of the scan images are normal and abnormal images are relatively small. Therefore, in order to process a large number of tests per unit time, it is inconvenient and time consuming due to repeated computer operation by a reader such as a doctor.

Therefore, in order to quickly read a large amount of digital inspection images, there is a need for a read support system that can first screen abnormal images and then process the remaining images collectively.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a digital inspection image reading support method that makes it possible to conveniently and conveniently read most of the remaining inspections by selecting the abnormal inspection images first while simultaneously searching a large number of digital inspection images at the same time. In providing.

In order to achieve the above object of the present invention, the present invention provides a method for supporting reading of digital inspection images, comprising: (a) displaying a plurality of digital inspection images; And (b) providing an abnormal indicator to a test image having a site suspected of a lesion among the displayed test images.

The present invention may further include, after step (b), (c) classifying test images that are not provided with abnormal indicators into normal test images.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the inconvenience and time consumption of the reader by repetitive computer operation by simplifying key operation as compared with the conventional method of reading the normal image while displaying the inspection images one by one. In addition, since abnormal markers can be given to inspection images suspected of lesions among the inspection images displayed at the same time, most of the remaining inspection images can be conveniently and normally read. Accordingly, the present invention provides the effect of rapidly and efficiently reading a large number of digital chest examinations, greatly reducing unnecessary computer key manipulation, and greatly reducing the reading time.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a flowchart of a method for supporting digital inspection image reading according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. This digital inspection image reading support method includes: a read waiting list preparation step (S11); Displaying a test image (S13); Abnormal indicator provision step (S15); Batch normal read step (S17); And abnormal image display step S19.

The digital inspection image reading support method of FIG. 1 may be executed by the digital inspection image reading supporting device shown in FIG. 2, which may be an external digital medical imaging device 1, for example, a computed radiography (CR) device or a DR (Digital). radiography) Receive an image from a device. In FIG. 2, the digital inspection image reading support apparatus includes a display device 2, a computer body 3, a keyboard 4, and a mouse 5. The computer main body 3 includes an image input unit 31, a storage device 32, a read only processor 33, a general purpose processor 34, an output unit 35, and an input unit 36. The image input unit 31 is for storing a large amount of digital inspection images generated by an external digital medical imaging apparatus 1 in a storage device 33 such as a hard disk. The image input unit 31 may be implemented by an interface for data communication. The storage device 32 may include an image file storage unit 322 and a database 324 storing test images received through the image input unit 31 in a file form. The read support processor 33 is a processor for executing a digital inspection image read support method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 and may be implemented by a DSP or the like. The read support dedicated processor 33 executes the digital inspection image read support method shown in FIG. 1 in response to a command from the general purpose processor 34, and may send the result to the general purpose processor 34. Alternatively, the read support processor 33 may directly transmit the result of the signal processing to the display device 2 which is a computer monitor such as LCD, CRT or the like via the output unit 35. The structure and operation of the general purpose processor 34, the output unit 35, the input unit 36, the keyboard 4, and the output unit 35 will be apparent to those skilled in the computer related art, and thus description thereof is omitted. When a large amount of digital chest images received from the digital medical imaging apparatus are stored in the image file storage unit 322, the read only processor 33 stores a database for digital chest images stored in the image file storage unit 322. Create This database is built using the information in the header of the medical image.

Each step of the digital inspection image reading support method shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 8.

step S11 : Create a Read Wait List

This step is to prepare a waiting list for inspection images. First, a chest image as shown in FIG. 3 is obtained by digital chest imaging. In general, one chest radiography is performed at a hospital for screening or group health examinations. The acquired chest images are stored in a database of the digital examination image reading support device. At this time, each inspection image constitutes a record of a database stored together with fields such as an institution, an inspection date, and an unread state. 4 shows records corresponding to the acquired chest images.

A list of test subjects can be obtained by searching the database, subjecting fields such as by institution, by test date, unread status, and the like. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 41 denotes a list of inspection objects retrieved from a database of the digital inspection image reading support apparatus. For this list of inspection objects 41, only the reading objects to be read may be selected using 'click and drag' or the like. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 42 denotes selected inspection objects, that is, inspection objects to be read.

When the 'Ready to read' button 43 is clicked, the selected test subjects 42 are placed in the read waiting list 44, and as shown at the bottom of FIG. 4, the read waiting list 44 is displayed. It is displayed on the screen of the display device of the digital inspection image reading support device. Next, when the 'Start to read' button 45 is clicked, the process proceeds to step S13.

step S13 : Read-out inspection image display

This step displays the inspection images of the read waiting list on the screen. To this end, a layout for simultaneously displaying the inspection images is set. Examples of this layout may be 1x1, 1x2, 2x2, 2x3, 3x3, 3x4, 4x4, and the like. Inspection images are displayed on the screen according to the preset layout. Therefore, the inspection images of the read waiting list 34 of FIG. 4 can be displayed simultaneously on one screen as shown in FIG. 5A. In this case, a process of automatically uploading the test images of the next read waiting list to the working memory (not shown) of the digital test image reading support apparatus may be performed in parallel. Thus, to the extent that the memory capacity allows, the next inspection images can be quickly retrieved.

5A shows, for example, displaying 3x3, that is, nine inspection images simultaneously. In Fig. 5A, when the next page button 51 is pressed, the read waiting inspection images of the next page are displayed. If necessary, by pressing the previous page button 52, it is also possible to query the inspection images of the previous page.

FIG. 5B shows an enlarged display of an image of FIG. 5A on a full screen by double-clicking a required image. In this state, the next page 51 and the previous page 52 can be moved. Double-click on this image again to return to the state of FIG. 5A.

step S15 : Give an anomaly indicator

This step is to give an abnormal indicator to a test image having a site where a lesion is suspected while querying the test images. The test images judged by a user such as a doctor or the like as the abnormality or the test image determined to have a suspected site are stored in the database together with the abnormality indicator given thereto. As an abnormal indicator, an arrow or circular marker can be used, and an abnormal read code can be used as an abnormal indicator.

FIG. 6A is a diagram illustrating the insertion of an arrow or circle marker at a site where an abnormality or lesion is suspected in a test image. After selecting one of the arrows 61 or the circle 62, the left mouse button is clicked on the suspected disease region to insert the marker. Reference numeral 63 denotes a marker inserted in the examination image. FIG. 6B is a view showing that the marker of the arrow 61 or the circle 62 indicates a suspected area in the state in which the image of FIG. 6A is enlarged to the entire screen (FIG. 4B).

6C shows reading the inspection image by selecting a simple read code. If the read button 65 is pressed after the read code is selected in the read code list 64 shown as the pull-down menu in FIG. 6C, the read code is displayed at the bottom of the image (66), and the read code information is displayed. Written to the database. At this point, a simple additional comment may be entered as typing. Examples of the reading code include: 1. normal, 2 burn defects, 3. inactive pulmonary tuberculosis, 4. mild pulmonary tuberculosis, 5. Moderate pulmonary tuberculosis, 6. severe pulmonary tuberculosis, 7. pulmonary tuberculosis symptoms, 8. non-tuberculosis disease, 9. circulatory disease, 10 Diagnosis pending may be used. Typically, these read codes will follow the commonly accepted health check codes.

Markers may use markers in the form of figures or letters other than arrows or circles. The image itself, such as an arrow or a circle of markers, may be inserted as an image in the inspection image. Similarly, abnormal read codes may be inserted as images in the inspection image. However, there may be cases where it is necessary to prevent an indicator inserted in an inspection image from erasing image information necessary for the reader. In this case, the indicator may configure the image information to exist in a layer different from that of the inspection image. Alternatively, the coordinate value of the marker indicating the disease or lesion suspected or the recording position of the read code on the test image and the type of the indicator, for example, type data indicating whether it is a circular figure, an arrow, or a read code. (Coordinate value, type data) of pairs may be used as an indicator. Abnormal indicators are recorded in the database along with corresponding inspection images. In addition, the inspection images to which the abnormal indicator has been given may be classified as a class of abnormal reading in the database or may be stored as a separate table or database. In addition, when an additional comment is input by typing, the additional comment may be recorded in a record of a corresponding inspection image as a separate field in the database.

step S17 : Batch normal reading

This step is a step of normally reading out the remaining inspection images except for the inspection images to which the abnormal indicator is assigned. FIG. 7 collectively normalizes a large number of remaining tests, except for test images in which the abnormal markers (arrows and circular diagrams) shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B are inserted and test images to which the abnormal reading codes are shown in FIG. Show the read result. When the "Read NL except <-○" button 72 displayed on the screen of the device is clicked, the remaining inspection images except the inspection images that are given an indicator such as an arrow and a circular figure or that are given an abnormal reading code will be displayed. Normal indicators 73 are collectively given to indicate that the image is a normal examination image. In this example, NL is used as an example of a normal indicator. In the database, the normal indicator is recorded in the record of the corresponding normal test image. Like the abnormal indicator, the normal indicator may be stored as an image on a layer different from the inspection image. Further, the normal indicator may be used as the normal indicator as display data (shape value, display data) which is a pair of " NL " Such normal indicators are recorded in the database along with corresponding test images In addition, test images endowed with such normal indicators can be classified as a class of normal readings in the database or as a separate table or database from abnormal test images. In addition, when an additional comment is entered as typing, the additional comment may be recorded in a record of a corresponding inspection image as a separate field in the database.

Therefore, without the need to repeat the operation of querying and reading one inspection image one by one, and the next inspection image innumerably, as in the conventional method, it is possible to read quickly by collectively normal reading through the method proposed in the present invention You can do your work.

step S19 : Abnormal picture display

This step is to help the user of the device to read the abnormal inspection image in detail. 8 is a screen in which only inspection images to which an abnormal marker has been assigned are selected and displayed after performing the process of step S17. The abnormal reading code is given to the inspection image has been described with reference to FIG. 6C. Therefore, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that when only the abnormal reading code is used, only inspection images to which the abnormal reading code is assigned can be selected and displayed.

In step S19, when the " Review <-○ " button 81 is clicked, only inspection images to which an abnormal indicator is given are displayed. Inspection images to which abnormal indicators are assigned can be precisely read through repetitive performance of step S15 described above. Therefore, the user can make a more detailed reading while inquiring only the inspection images to which the abnormal indicator is given. In addition, such an inquiry may be repeatedly performed as many times as desired by the user.

After the reading of the inspection images is completed, by pressing the read waiting list empty button 46 by the user, these read-out inspection objects are removed from the reading waiting list (44 in FIG. 4) and emptied. The process can then return to the beginning of FIG. 2 to select the tests to be read next and prepare them in the read waiting list.

In the above description, an example in which the abnormal read code and the abnormal marker are displayed together on one screen has been described. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that such an example does not limit the present invention, and that modifications in which only one kind of abnormal read codes and abnormal markers are displayed and used on the screen as abnormal indicators are also within the scope of the present invention.

In addition, in the foregoing description, an embodiment of the present invention has been described using the chest image as an example. However, it will be well understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the chest image, and that the present invention can be applied to various existing inspection images that read normal status while displaying inspection images one by one.

1 is a flowchart illustrating a digital inspection image reading supporting method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a computer device capable of executing the digital inspection image reading support method of FIG. 1.

3 is a diagram showing an example of a digital chest imaging photograph obtained by a digital chest imaging apparatus;

4 is a diagram for describing a process of preparing a waiting list for reading of inspection images;

5A and 5B are diagrams for describing methods of displaying inspection images on the read waiting list of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5A illustrates inspection according to a preset display layout (eg, 3 (horizontal) x 3 (vertical) images). 5B is a diagram displaying images, and FIG. 5B is a diagram showing an enlarged image of one inspection image of the inspection images of FIG.

6A to 6C are diagrams for explaining abnormal markers on areas (abnormal areas) suspected of lesions of the test image, and FIGS. 6A and 6B show abnormal markers such as arrows and circles on abnormal areas of the test image. Figure 6c is a diagram showing what is given as a ruler, Figure 6c is a diagram showing a simple read code given as an abnormal indicator,

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the normal reading processing of the remaining inspection images except for the inspection images to which the abnormal indicator is assigned; and

8 is a diagram for selectively displaying only inspection images to which an abnormal indicator is assigned.

Claims (8)

In the support method of reading digital inspection images, (a) displaying a plurality of digital inspection images; And (b) providing an abnormal indicator on a test image having a site suspected of a lesion among the displayed test images. The method of claim 1, wherein the abnormal indicator is one of an arrow, a figure, and a read code, and at least two combinations thereof. The method of claim 2, wherein the arrow or figure is inserted at a site of suspected lesion in the examination image. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) (a1) displaying a plurality of digital inspection images according to a predetermined display layout; (a2) selecting one of the test images displayed in step (a1); And (a3) enlarging and displaying the test image selected in step (a2). The process of claim 1, wherein after step (b), (c) classifying the test images with no abnormal indicator provided as normal test images. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein step (c) further comprises assigning a normal indicator to the normal test images indicating that the test image is normally read. The process of claim 5, wherein after step (c), (d) displaying the test images provided with the abnormal indicator. The method of claim 1, wherein the examination image is a digital chest image obtained by radiography.

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