KR20190049153A - Early diagnosing apparaus and method of breast cancer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for early diagnosis of breast cancer and, more specifically, to an apparatus and a method for early diagnosis of breast cancer which remove an artifact created when an X-ray detection unit intermittently or continuously rotates in accordance with a preset angle range and detects an X-ray if an X-ray emission unit intermittently or continuously rotates in accordance with a preset angle range and emits an X-ray to a diagnosis subject. Also, according to the present invention, the apparatus for early diagnosis of breast cancer comprises: an X-ray emission unit to rotate in accordance with a preset angle range and generate an X-ray to emit the X-ray to a diagnosis subject; an image acquisition unit which is positioned on a lower portion of the diagnosis subject, and acquires a diagnosis image for the diagnosis subject from an X-ray penetrating the diagnosis subject while rotating by a corresponding angle in an opposite direction around a rotational axis as the X-ray emission unit rotates in accordance with the preset angle range; and an image determination unit to use the diagnosis image from which an artifact is removed after the artifact is removed from the diagnosis image to determine whether a lesion in the diagnosis subject exists.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for early diagnosis of breast cancer,

More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for early detection of breast cancer. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for early diagnosis of breast cancer. More particularly, The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for early diagnosis of breast cancer in which artifacts generated when a subject rotates continuously and detects x-rays are removed.

Recently, as the age of aging and the level of people's standard of living have improved, interest in early diagnosis and treatment of diseases has become increasingly increasing. In the case of cancer among many diseases, It is becoming the most important factor that threatens the public health.

According to the Cancer Registration Division of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, it is estimated that more than 130,000 new cancer patients occur annually in Korea. The number of cancer cases registered between 2003 and 2005 is used, There are 300.0 cases and 248.2 cases.

The incidence of cancer is higher in the order of stomach cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, and colon cancer, which account for 66% of the total male cancer incidence, while cancer incidence is higher in breast cancer, thyroid cancer, Stomach cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer, breast cancer is higher than the four major cancer.

Thus, early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, which has the highest incidence rate in women, is an important factor that must be preceded for the healthy living of women.

However, in mammography, which is mainly used for the diagnosis of breast cancer in women with asymptomatic breast cancer, since the result of imaging using X-ray is a two-dimensional image, the lesion of the region of interest overlaps with the normal tissue, It is difficult to detect the mass of the breast.

In addition, since the difference in the absorption rate of x-rays between the breast tissue and the cancer is very small, the probability of false positive or false negative is high because of low selection ability. In fact, This is 30%.

In particular, even though there is breast cancer, breast cancer, which is read normally or positively, can be mistaken for breast cancer, causing wrong diagnosis and delaying the diagnosis of breast cancer. Therefore, the health of the patient is threatened, It is becoming the main cause of trouble.

Therefore, it is urgently required to develop a breast cancer diagnosis method with high accuracy so as to reduce the probability of false positives and false negatives in the diagnosis of breast cancer so that unnecessary re-imaging and biopsy are not required.

Open No. 10-2016-0007799 discloses an apparatus and method for early diagnosis of breast cancer developed in accordance with the necessity.

The above-mentioned prior art techniques are based on complementary use of a three-dimensional image obtained by a DBT (Digitial Breast Tomosynthesis) method and a three-dimensional image of a diagnostic object obtained by a DOT (Diffuse Optical Tomography) It is possible to improve the efficiency of early diagnosis of breast cancer and to reduce unnecessary biopsy.

However, in such a conventional technique, when the X-ray irradiating unit rotates intermittently or continuously according to a predetermined angle range and irradiates the X-ray to the diagnostic object, the X-ray detecting unit detects the X-ray in a fixed state, Making it difficult to acquire images.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2016-0007799 Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2013-0072296

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an X-ray detecting apparatus, The present invention provides an apparatus and method for early diagnosis of breast cancer in which artifacts generated when X-rays are detected are rotated.

The apparatus of the present invention includes an X-ray irradiator for generating X-rays and irradiating the X-ray to a diagnostic target by rotating according to a predetermined angular range; A diagnostic image for the diagnosis target object, which is located at a lower portion of the diagnosis target body and has passed through the diagnosis target body, is rotated at an angle corresponding to the opposite direction about the rotation axis as the X- An image acquiring unit for acquiring the image; And an image judging unit for judging the presence or absence of a lesion inside the diagnostic target using the diagnostic image from which the artificial material has been removed after removing the artificial object from the diagnostic image.

The image determining unit of the apparatus of the present invention may further include an artifact removing unit for removing artifacts from the diagnostic image; An image generating unit for generating a three-dimensional image of the diagnostic object from the diagnostic image from which artifacts are removed from the artificial material removing unit; And a determination unit for determining a lesion suspicious region within the diagnostic target from the three-dimensional image and determining the presence or absence of a lesion within the diagnostic target.

In addition, the artifact removing unit of the apparatus of the present invention includes a high density separator for separating high density components by setting a threshold value in the diagnostic image; A noise eliminator for removing artifacts using morphology to the high-density components separated by the high-density separator; And a backprojector for generating a diagnostic image in which artifacts are removed by backprojecting high density components from which artifacts have been removed.

Further, the determination unit of the apparatus of the present invention is characterized by being a computer-aided detection (CAD) module.

In addition, the apparatus of the present invention includes: an upper fixing plate positioned between the X-ray irradiating unit and the diagnosis target and fixing the upper surface of the diagnosis target; And a lower fixation plate positioned between the diagnostic object and the image acquiring unit and fixing the lower surface of the diagnostic metabolism.

The X-ray irradiating unit of the apparatus of the present invention is intermittently or continuously rotated and generates the X-ray only when it stops during the intermittent rotation and irradiates the X-ray to the diagnostic target, or diagnoses the X-ray at a predetermined angle during the continuous rotation Investigate the object.

The method of the present invention comprises the steps of: (A) generating an X-ray and irradiating the X-ray to a diagnostic target by rotating the X-ray irradiating unit according to a preset angular range; (B) acquiring a diagnostic image of the diagnostic target from an X-ray transmitted through the diagnostic target while rotating the image acquisition unit at an angle corresponding to the direction opposite to the X-ray irradiating unit about a rotation axis; And (C) determining whether or not a lesion is present in the diagnostic target using the diagnostic image from which the artificial object has been removed after the image determination unit has removed the artificial object from the diagnostic image.

The step (C) of the method of the present invention may further comprise: (C-1) removing the artifact from the diagnostic image by the image determining unit; (C-2) the image determining unit obtaining a three-dimensional image of the diagnostic target from the diagnostic image; (C-3) determining the lesion suspicious region within the diagnostic target from the 3D image; And (C-4) determining that the image determining unit determines the presence or absence of a lesion in the diagnosis target object.

In the step (C-1) of the method of the present invention, the image determining unit sets a threshold value in the diagnostic image to separate high density components. Removing artifacts using a morphology for the high density components separated by the image determination unit; And generating a diagnostic image in which artifacts are removed by backprojecting high density components from which the artifacts have been removed.

Further, in the step (A) of the method of the present invention, the X-ray irradiating unit is intermittently or continuously rotated, and generates X-rays only when it stops during the intermittent rotation to irradiate the X- The X-ray is irradiated to the diagnosis object.

When the X-ray irradiating unit rotates intermittently or continuously according to a predetermined angular range as described above and the X-ray detecting unit irradiates the X-ray to the diagnostic target, the X-ray detecting unit rotates intermittently or continuously according to a predetermined angle range corresponding thereto and detects the X- Thereby enabling accurate image detection.

Particularly, the present invention removes artifacts from a diagnostic image to enable precise change.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an early diagnosis apparatus for breast cancer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of a lesion judging unit of an early diagnosis apparatus for breast cancer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is an illustration of a breast cancer phantom mounted on a lower fixation plate,
Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of markers present in a mid 2 cm flat area,
Figure 5 is a view showing the afterimage (artifact) of a circle marker on the plane of the top of the phantom (4 cm below) in the z-axis direction of the phantom,
FIG. 6 is a detailed block diagram of the artificial material removing apparatus of FIG. 2,
7 is a view showing a diagnostic image in which artifacts are removed,
FIG. 8 is an operation reference diagram of the early stage breast cancer diagnostic apparatus according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 9 is a flow chart of a method for early diagnosis of breast cancer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and
FIG. 10 is a detailed flowchart of S200 of FIG.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

First, the terminology used in the present application is used only to describe a specific embodiment, and is not intended to limit the present invention, and the singular expressions may include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Also, in this application, the terms "comprise", "having", and the like are intended to specify that there are stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, parts or combinations thereof, But do not preclude the presence or addition of features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear.

1 is a conceptual diagram of an early diagnosis apparatus for breast cancer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

1, an apparatus for early diagnosis of breast cancer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes an X-ray irradiating unit 10, an image acquiring unit 20, an upper fixing plate 30, and a lower fixing plate 40 .

The X-ray irradiator 10 generates an X-ray and irradiates the X-ray to the diagnostic target B. In this case, the X-ray irradiating unit 10 may be an X-ray tube, the diagnosis target may be the breast of the subject, and in the case of the X-ray irradiating unit 10, according to a predetermined angle range (for example, The X-ray can be irradiated to the diagnosis target object only when it is intermittently or continuously rotated and stopped during the intermittent rotation, or the X-ray can be irradiated to the diagnosis target object at a preset angle during the continuous rotation.

The image acquiring unit 20 acquires a diagnostic image of the diagnosis target object from the X-ray that is positioned below the diagnosis target object and transmitted through the diagnosis target object. At this time, the diagnostic image may be composed of a collection (for example, 15) of diagnostic object projection images by X-rays irradiated at various angles.

The image acquiring unit 20 acquires the diagnostic image while the X-ray irradiating unit rotates intermittently or continuously according to a preset angle range and rotates at an angle corresponding to the opposite direction about the rotation axis.

In addition, in the case of the semiconductor flat panel detector, the plurality of sensors are formed in a matrix form, so that the image acquisition unit 20 can have a high resolution, a wide dynamic range ), High electrical signal generation, and easy data processing.

Therefore, not only real-time processing and reproduction of the diagnostic image can be performed, but also the diagnostic image of high resolution can be obtained even with a relatively small amount of X-rays.

The upper fixing plate 30 is located between the X-ray irradiating unit 10 and the diagnosis object and fixes the upper surface of the diagnosis target body (that is, the upper chest as the upper surface of the subject's breast) The lower surface of the diagnosis object (that is, the lower chest, which is the lower surface of the breast of the subject to be diagnosed), which is located between the diagnosis object and the image acquisition unit 20, is fixed.

In addition, although not shown in FIG. 1, in the case of the breast cancer early diagnosis apparatus 1 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a lesion (that is, a breast cancer lesion inside the subject's breast) The image determining unit 50 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

2 is a detailed block diagram of the image determination unit. 2, the image determining unit 50 includes an artifact removing unit 51, an image generating unit 52, and a determining unit 53. [

In the case where the image acquiring unit 20 generates a diagnostic image for a diagnostic target, imaging is performed while rotating only at a predetermined angle, so that artifacts can not be avoided. The occurrence of this artifact is an obstacle to breast cancer readings and needs to be removed.

Referring to FIG. 3, a 4 cm thick breast cancer lesion phantom is placed on the lower fixture plate 40, and a marker is located on the middle 2 cm plane.

Referring to FIG. 4, a cross-sectional image of all the markers present in the middle 2 cm plane portion is illustrated. The circle marker is presently in the middle 2 cm.

5, a residual image (artifact) of a circle marker is seen on the plane of the upper part of the phantom (4 cm below) in the z-axis direction of the phantom. The reason behind this residual image is the technical limitation of TOMO photography, Is an obstructive factor in the diagnosis of breast cancer lesions. Therefore, it is necessary to remove such artifacts.

For this, the artifact removing unit 51 removes artifacts from the diagnostic images acquired by the image acquiring unit 30, and provides the diagnostic images to the image generating unit 52 from which the artifacts have been removed.

The artificial remover 51 separates high-density components primarily by setting a threshold value in a diagnostic image.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the high-density separator 51-1 sets a threshold value in the diagnostic image and separates pixel values larger than the threshold value into high-density components.

In the present invention, when a diagnostic image of a plurality of (11-15) X-ray projections is photographed and photographed, and a portion having an object is detected, a pixel value becomes large when the high-density component is detected, Separates that part.

Then, the artifact removing unit 51 removes artifacts by utilizing the morphology in the high density component separated by the high density separator 51-1.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the noise eliminator 51-2 obtains a deviation between the pixel value and the surrounding pixel value for each pixel of the separated high-density component so as to exceed a predetermined deviation, that is, Remove artifacts by removing large or small remaining parts.

Next, the artifact removing unit 51 generates a diagnostic image in which artifacts are removed by backprojecting the high-density component from which the artifact has been removed.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the backprojector 51-3 restores the diagnostic image by pasting the separated high-density component back to the diagnostic image before the high-density component is separated.

At this time, the backprojector 51-3 performs interpolation by filling the removed portion corresponding to noise in the high-density component with the intermediate value of the peripheral values.

An example of a diagnostic image in which an artifact is removed by the artifact removing unit 51 is shown in FIG. 7, which shows that a residual image in a circle is almost invisible as compared with FIG.

The image generating unit 52 generates a three-dimensional image of the diagnostic target using the diagnostic image obtained by the image acquiring unit 20 and the artifact removed from the artificial material removing unit 51, Determines a lesion suspicious region in the diagnosis target body using the three-dimensional image, and determines the presence or absence of a lesion in the diagnosis target body.

In the case of the 3D image, since the 3D image is a DBT (Digital Breast Tomosynthesis) 3D three-dimensional tomographic image generated by synthesizing the diagnostic image with a Filtered Back Projection (FBP) method, the determination unit 53 determines, using the 3D image, It is possible to detect the mass of the breast and microcalcification in the inside to determine the microcalcification region as the lesion suspicious region.

The determination unit 53 may be a computer-aided detection (CAD) module that automatically or semi-automatically detects a lesion using the diagnostic image or the three-dimensional image.

Thus, in the case of the three-dimensional image, it can be easily utilized in determining a lesion suspected region.

8 is an operation reference diagram of an early diagnosis apparatus for breast cancer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

First, as shown in FIG. 8, when the X-ray irradiating unit 10 intermittently or continuously rotates according to a preset angle range and irradiates an X-ray to the diagnosis target object B, the image acquiring unit 20 transmits the X- Obtain a diagnostic image from the x-ray.

At this time, the image acquiring unit 20 acquires the diagnostic image while the X-ray irradiating unit rotates intermittently or continuously according to a preset angle range and rotates at an angle corresponding to the opposite direction about the rotation axis.

The distance A of the X-ray irradiating section 10 from the diagnosis target object B is 657 mm for example and the distance B from the diagnosis target object B to the image obtaining section 20 is 80 mm for example. The distance A of the X-ray irradiating unit 10 and the distance B of the image obtaining unit 20 from the diagnosis target B can be appropriately adjusted to obtain an optimal image from the diagnosis object B as described above.

9 is a flowchart of a method for early diagnosis of breast cancer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 9, in S100, the image obtaining unit 20 obtains a diagnostic image of the diagnostic target from the X-ray transmitted through the diagnostic target B after being irradiated from the X-

At this time, the X-ray irradiating unit 10 generates X-rays and irradiates the X-ray to the diagnosis target object B. The X-ray irradiating unit 10 intermittently or continuously rotates according to a predetermined angle range (for example, -21 to 21 degrees) The X-ray can be irradiated to the diagnosis target object only when it is stopped or the X-ray can be irradiated to the diagnosis target object at a predetermined angle during the continuous rotation.

The image acquiring unit 20 acquires a diagnostic image for the diagnosis target object from the X-ray that is positioned below the diagnosis target object and transmitted through the diagnosis target object. The image acquiring unit 20 acquires the diagnostic image, And the diagnostic image is acquired while rotating at an angle corresponding to the opposite direction about the rotation axis.

In S200, when the image determining unit 50 determines the presence or absence of a lesion in the diagnostic target using the diagnostic image, the process is terminated.

The detailed procedure of S200 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 10 is a detailed flowchart of S200 of FIG. As shown in FIG. 10, the artificial material removing unit 51 removes artifacts from the diagnostic image at S210.

The artificial remover 51 separates high-density components primarily by setting a threshold value in a diagnostic image.

That is, the artificial material removing unit 51 sets a threshold value in the diagnostic image and separates pixel values larger than the threshold value into high density components.

In the present invention, when a diagnostic image of a plurality of (11-15) X-ray projections is rotated and photographed, a pixel value is detected when a part having an object is detected, which means a high density component, and the artifact remover 51 I separate that part.

Then, the artifact removing unit 51 removes the artifacts using morphology from the separated high density components.

That is, for each pixel of the separated high-density component, the artifact removing unit 51 obtains the deviation between the peripheral pixel value and the pixel value, and removes a portion exceeding a predetermined deviation, that is, To remove artifacts.

Next, the artifact removing unit 51 generates a diagnostic image in which artifacts are removed by backprojecting the high-density component from which the artifact has been removed.

That is, the artificial material removing unit 51 restores the diagnostic image by pasting the separated high-density component back to the diagnostic image before the high-density component is separated.

At this time, the artifact removing unit 51 performs interpolation by filling the removed portion corresponding to the noise in the high density component with the intermediate value of the surrounding values.

Next, in S220, the image generating unit 52 generates a three-dimensional image of the diagnosis object from the diagnostic image from which artifacts have been removed.

At this time, the process of generating the 3D image from the diagnostic image has been described above, so that a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In S230, the determination unit 53 determines the lesion suspected region using the three-dimensional image, and when the presence or absence of the lesion in the diagnosis target body is determined in S250, the determination is terminated.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It will be possible. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention and the accompanying drawings are intended to illustrate and not to limit the technical spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments and the accompanying drawings . The scope of protection of the present invention should be construed according to the following claims, and all technical ideas within the scope of equivalents thereof should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention.

(10): X-ray irradiator 20:
(30): upper fixing plate (40): lower fixing plate
(50): image judging unit (51): artifact removing unit
(52): Image generation unit (53): Decision unit

Claims (10)

An X-ray irradiator for generating an X-ray and irradiating the X-ray to a diagnostic target by rotating according to a predetermined angle range;
A diagnostic image for the diagnosis target object, which is located at a lower portion of the diagnosis target body and has passed through the diagnosis target body, is rotated at an angle corresponding to the opposite direction about the rotation axis as the X- An image acquiring unit for acquiring the image; And
And an image judging unit for judging the presence or absence of a lesion in the diagnosis object by using a diagnostic image from which the artifact has been removed after removing the artifact from the diagnostic image. The method according to claim 1,
The image determination unit
Artifact removal to remove artifacts from the diagnostic images;
An image generating unit for generating a three-dimensional image of the diagnostic object from the diagnostic image from which artifacts are removed from the artificial material removing unit; And
And a determination unit for determining a lesion suspicious region in the diagnosis target object from the three-dimensional image and determining the presence or absence of a lesion inside the diagnosis target object. The method according to claim 2,
The artifact removal unit
A high density separator for separating a high density component by setting a threshold value in the diagnostic image;
A noise eliminator for removing artifacts using morphology to the high-density components separated by the high-density separator; And
And a backprojector for generating a diagnostic image from which artifacts are removed by backprojecting high density components from which artifacts have been removed. The method according to claim 2,
Wherein the determination unit is a computer-aided detection (CAD) module. The method according to claim 1,
An upper fixing plate positioned between the X-ray irradiating unit and the diagnosis target and fixing the upper surface of the diagnosis target; And
And a lower fixation plate positioned between the diagnostic object and the image acquiring unit and fixing a lower surface of the diagnostic metabolism. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the X-ray irradiating unit rotates intermittently or continuously and generates X-rays only when the intermittent rotation is stopped, irradiates the X-ray to the diagnosis object, or irradiates the X-ray to the diagnostic object at a predetermined angle during the continuous rotation, Device. (A) generating an X-ray and irradiating the X-ray to a diagnostic target by rotating the X-ray irradiating unit according to a predetermined angle range;
(B) acquiring a diagnostic image of the diagnostic target from an X-ray transmitted through the diagnostic target while rotating the image acquisition unit at an angle corresponding to the direction opposite to the X-ray irradiating unit about a rotation axis; And
(C) judging the presence or absence of a lesion in the diagnosis object by using a diagnostic image in which artifacts are removed after the image determination unit removes artifacts from the diagnostic image. The method of claim 7,
The step (C)
(C-1) removing the artifact from the diagnostic image by the image determining unit;
(C-2) the image determining unit obtaining a three-dimensional image of the diagnostic target from the diagnostic image;
(C-3) determining the lesion suspicious region within the diagnostic target from the 3D image; And
(C-4) The method for diagnosing breast cancer early, wherein the image determining unit determines whether or not a lesion is present in the diagnosis target body. The method of claim 9,
The step (C-1)
Setting a threshold value in the diagnostic image and separating a high density component;
Removing artifacts using a morphology for the high density components separated by the image determination unit; And
And generating a diagnostic image in which artifacts are removed by backprojecting high-density components from which the artifacts have been removed. The method of claim 7,
In the step (A), the X-ray irradiating unit is intermittently or continuously rotated, and generates X-rays only when stopping during the intermittent rotation and irradiates the X-rays to the diagnostic target, or irradiates the X- Of breast cancer.

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