Pathological section streaming reading method and device and readable storage medium thereof

Abstract

The invention provides a pathological section streaming reading method and device and a readable storage medium, and the method comprises the steps: constructing a hierarchical tile storage structure, dividing a pathological section image into multiple layers of tiles according to a preset scaling, and generating hierarchical pointer information; a target tile index is dynamically calculated according to the hierarchy and coordinates of the user visible area, and on-demand streaming loading is achieved; the data access efficiency is optimized through a cache management module, and expired cache is automatically cleaned based on an access time threshold value; tile data can be stored in compressed formats such as JPEG and HEVC, and the storage and transmission cost is reduced. According to the method, the problems of high network delay, large storage redundancy and poor protocol adaptability caused by full-amount downloading of pathological sections in a cloud storage environment are solved, and the access efficiency and resource utilization rate of medical images are remarkably improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the intersection of medical image processing and cloud storage technology, and in particular to a pathological slice streaming reading method, device and readable storage medium thereof. Background Art

[0002] With the popularization of digital pathology technology, the amount of pathology slide data that hospitals and institutions need to store is growing exponentially. Traditional local storage is gradually being replaced by cloud storage due to capacity limitations. However, although cloud storage protocols (such as S3) solve the storage capacity problem, they introduce new technical bottlenecks: Low access speed: Pathology slide files are usually high-resolution images (e.g., 100,000 × 100,000 pixels), which need to be fully downloaded before they can be displayed in a cloud storage environment, resulting in high network transmission delays and long user waiting times; High storage cost: Traditional storage methods cannot compress or manage data in layers as needed, and occupy a large amount of redundant space; Poor protocol adaptability: Existing cloud storage protocols lack streaming loading optimization for pathological sections and cannot dynamically load local data based on user browsing needs.

[0003] Although existing technologies (such as Google Maps tile technology) improve map loading efficiency through layering and segmentation, they are not adapted to the special needs of medical imaging scenarios (such as high precision, unique identification, and metadata association of pathological sections), resulting in limited application in the field of pathology. Summary of the invention

[0004] The embodiments of the present invention provide a pathological slice streaming reading method, device and readable storage medium thereof, which address the problems existing in the current technology, such as reliance on full data download and lack of dynamic streaming loading protocol for pathological slices, resulting in large network transmission volume, high storage cost and low access efficiency.

[0005] The core technology of the present invention is mainly to realize on-demand data loading of the user's visible area through a layered tile storage structure, a dynamic streaming loading algorithm, and a cache and compression optimization mechanism, significantly reducing network transmission volume and storage costs, while being compatible with multiple compression formats (such as JPEG, HEVC) to adapt to the needs of medical imaging scenarios.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for streaming reading of pathological sections, the method comprising the following steps: S00, constructing a hierarchical tile storage structure: dividing the pathological slice image into multiple layers according to a preset scaling ratio, each layer comprising tiles arranged in rows and columns, and generating hierarchical tile pointer information, the hierarchical tile pointer information including a storage location pointer and a data length of each tile; S10, dynamically streaming tile data: according to the level, x-axis coordinate and y-axis coordinate of the user's visible area, the target tile index is calculated by the formula index = level * total number of tiles in the previous level + y * number of horizontal tiles in the current level + x, and the tile data is located from the level tile pointer information based on the index; S20, cache management: set a cache identifier for the requested tile data, the cache identifier is generated by the slice unique identifier, level, x-axis coordinate and y-axis coordinate, automatically clean up expired cache according to the access time threshold, and dynamically adjust the cache deletion strategy when the storage space is insufficient; S30, data compression and parsing: the tile data is stored in a preset compression format, and decoded according to the compression type when reading.

[0007] Furthermore, in step S00, the hierarchical tile pointer information is stored according to the following rules: The pointer information of each layer of tiles is recorded continuously in row and column order starting from the zeroth layer. The pointer information of each tile occupies 12 bytes, including an 8-byte storage location pointer and a 4-byte data length.

[0008] Furthermore, step S00 also includes the definition of the file header protocol: The file header protocol occupies 184 bytes, including the slice unique identifier GUID, the total number of levels, the number of rows and columns of each layer of tiles, and the scaling ratio. The total number of levels shall not exceed 16, and the scaling ratio of each layer shall be 0.5 times that of the previous layer.

[0009] Furthermore, in step S20, the access time threshold is 15 days. When the storage space capacity is lower than the safety boundary, the threshold is automatically decreased by a preset step size until the safety boundary of the capacity is reached.

[0010] Furthermore, the reading method of the hierarchical tile pointer information in step S20 is: A 12KB continuous data block is read at one time. The data block contains pointer information of at least 1024 tiles, and a two-dimensional array is built in the memory to store the start and end positions of the pointer data.

[0011] Furthermore, step S30 also includes storage and analysis of user-defined data: In the file header protocol, 8 bytes are reserved for storing the pointer and length of user-defined data. The user-defined data is stored in the file body in JSON format, including metadata information of pathological sections.

[0012] Furthermore, the total number of level tiles in step S10 is calculated as follows: The total number of tiles in the nth layer is 4 times the product of the number of horizontal tiles and the number of vertical tiles in the n-1th layer, and the total number of tiles in the zeroth layer is 4.

[0013] In a second aspect, the present invention provides a pathological section flow reading device, comprising: A hierarchical tile storage module constructs a hierarchical tile storage structure: the pathological slice image is divided into multiple layers according to a preset scaling ratio, each layer contains tiles arranged in rows and columns, and hierarchical tile pointer information is generated, the hierarchical tile pointer information includes the storage location pointer and data length of each tile; Dynamic streaming tile loading module, dynamic streaming tile data loading: according to the level, x-axis coordinate and y-axis coordinate of the user's visible area, the target tile index is calculated by the formula index = level * total number of tiles in the previous level + y * number of horizontal tiles in the current level + x, and the tile data is located from the level tile pointer information based on the index; The cache management module sets a cache identifier for the requested tile data. The cache identifier is generated by the slice unique identifier, level, x-axis coordinate, and y-axis coordinate. It automatically cleans up expired caches based on the access time threshold and dynamically adjusts the cache deletion strategy when storage space is insufficient. The data compression and parsing module stores the tile data in a preset compression format and decodes it according to the compression type when reading.

[0014] In a third aspect, the present invention provides an electronic device including a memory and a processor, wherein the memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to run the computer program to execute the above-mentioned pathological section streaming reading method.

[0015] In a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored. The computer program includes a program code for controlling a process to execute the process, and the process includes the pathological section streaming reading method described above.

[0016] The main contributions and innovations of the present invention are as follows: 1. Reduce data transmission volume: Through dynamic loading of layered tiles, only the data in the user's visible area is transmitted, avoiding full download and reducing network bandwidth consumption by more than 50%; 2. Optimize storage costs: Hierarchical scaling (0.5 times) combined with compression technology (JPEG / HEVC) reduces slice storage space by 30%-60%; 3. Improve access efficiency: The cache management module reduces random IO requests through unique identifiers (GUIDs) and hierarchical coordinate indexing strategies, reducing access latency by more than 40%; 4. Enhanced protocol adaptability: The file header protocol (184 bytes) supports pathology slice metadata extension (such as GUID, user-defined JSON), adapting to the special needs of medical imaging scenarios; 5. Dynamic resource management: The automatic cache cleanup mechanism (15-day threshold + dynamic decrement strategy) balances storage space and access performance to avoid the risk of disk capacity overflow.

[0017] The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following drawings and description so that other features, objects, and advantages of the invention are more readily apparent. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] The drawings described herein are used to provide a further understanding of the present invention and constitute a part of the present invention. The exemplary embodiments of the present invention and their descriptions are used to explain the present invention and do not constitute an improper limitation of the present invention. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a file format protocol diagram of an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 is a streaming file format reading and parsing diagram of an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 is a hierarchical tile pointer data set diagram of an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 is a file header protocol diagram of an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 5 is a file layer structure diagram of an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 6 This is a structural diagram of a preview slice image according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 7 4 is a schematic diagram of the hardware structure of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] Exemplary embodiments will be described in detail herein, examples of which are shown in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to the drawings, the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The implementations described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with one or more embodiments of this specification. Instead, they are merely examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects of one or more embodiments of this specification as detailed in the appended claims.

[0020] It should be noted that: in other embodiments, the steps of the corresponding method are not necessarily performed in the order shown and described in this specification. In some other embodiments, the steps included in the method may be more or less than those described in this specification. In addition, a single step described in this specification may be decomposed into multiple steps for description in other embodiments; and multiple steps described in this specification may be combined into a single step for description in other embodiments.

[0021] The existing technology has the problems of high cloud storage access latency, large bandwidth usage, and high storage cost, and is unable to achieve progressive loading and accurate data access of pathological sections.

[0022] Based on this, the present invention solves the problems existing in the prior art based on a layered tile streaming storage architecture, a dynamic cache management strategy and an on-demand loaded cloud access protocol.

[0023] Embodiment 1 The present invention aims to propose a method for streaming reading of pathological sections, specifically, referring to Figure 1 , the method comprising: 1. Construction of hierarchical tile storage structure Implementation steps: Hierarchical division: Scale the pathological slice data layer by layer at a ratio of 0.5 to form a pyramid structure with a maximum of 16 layers ( Figure 5 ). Layer 0 is the minimum preview layer, and layer 15 is the original resolution layer. For example, the layer division rule is: the pathology slice image is divided into multiple layers (up to 16 layers) according to the preset zoom ratio, and the zoom ratio of each layer is 0.5 times that of the previous layer (for example: layer 0 is the original resolution, layer 1 is 0.5 times the resolution, and so on).

[0024] Tile parameters: Each layer of the image is divided into several tiles by rows and columns. For example, the size of each layer of tiles is fixed at 256×256 pixels (configurable to 512×512), and the number of tiles increases by width_level=width_{level-1}×2, height_level=height_{level-1}×2. For example, if the 0th layer is 2×2 tiles, the 1st layer is 4×4 tiles.

[0025] Storage order: Each layer of tiles is stored continuously in the order of "left → right, top → bottom" ( Figure 3 ), each tile data contains a pointer (8 bytes) and a length (4 bytes), a total of 12 bytes per tile.

[0026] File structure: Header information (184 bytes) ( Figure 4 ): 4-byte manufacturer identifier (such as "ZNH"); 4-byte file format identifier (such as "PFV1"); 32-byte slice-unique GUID (Globally Unique Identifier); 8-byte user-defined data pointer and length.

[0027] 132-byte slice storage information: 4 bytes total number of layers; 4 bytes per layer, width and height, number of tiles (maximum 16 layers).

[0028] Document body: User-defined information (JSON format, such as patient information); Hierarchical tile image data (supports JPEG / HEVC / GZIP compression).

[0029] 2. Streaming access protocol implementation Process Description ( Figure 2 ): 2.1 Parameter reception: The front end passes fileName (slice file name), level (level), x / y (tile coordinates).

[0030] 2.2 Cache Check: Cache key: {GUID}-{level}-{x}-{y} If the cache exists, return directly; otherwise, proceed to the next step.

[0031] 2.3 Pointer batch reading: Calculate the linear index: According to the level, x-axis and y-axis coordinates of the user's visible area, the target tile index is calculated using the formula index = level * total number of tiles in the previous level + y * number of horizontal tiles in the current level + x.

[0032] Determine the pointer reading range: Based on the index value, from the level tile pointer information ( Figure 3 ) to obtain the storage location pointer and data length of the tile, and reduce random IO requests by reading a 12KB data block (containing 1024 tile pointer information) at a time.

[0033] 2.4 Data extraction: Read the data block corresponding to the pointer + length from the cloud storage.

[0034] Call the corresponding compression format parsing module (JPEG / HEVC / GZIP).

[0035] For example, read tile data (such as JPEG compression format) according to the pointer, decode it and return it to the front-end for display. When the user browses the first layer, if x=1, y=1, then the index = 1×4 (number of tiles in the 0th layer) + 1×4 (number of horizontal tiles in the current layer) + 1=9, and directly read the tile data corresponding to index 9.

[0036] 2.5 Cache update: write tile data to the local cache and update the access timestamp.

[0037] 3. Dynamic Cache Management 3.1 Cache ID generation: Generate a unique cache file name by concatenating the slice unique identifier (GUID), level, x and y coordinates, for example: GUID_level_x_y.

[0038] 3.2 Expiration strategy: Initial threshold: If the page is not accessed for 15 days, it will be deleted. If it is accessed during this period, the time will be reset.

[0039] Dynamic adjustment: When the storage space usage exceeds the threshold, the threshold is automatically shortened by one day for every 1GB full, and a minimum of 4GB of safe space is reserved. For example, when the storage space is insufficient, the threshold is automatically reduced in steps (such as 15 days → 14 days → 13 days) until the safe limit of the capacity is reached (reserving 4GB of safe capacity).

[0040] 3.3 Cache elimination: Delete expired data according to the LRU (least recently used) algorithm.

[0041] 3.4 Cache preloading: Load adjacent level tile data when accessed for the first time to reduce delays when users zoom in and out.

[0042] 4. Multi-format compression adaptation 4.1 Storage format: Tile data can be selected as JPEG (lossy compression), HEVC (high-efficiency video coding) or GZIP (general purpose compression).

[0043] 4.2 Parsing logic: According to the file header identifier, call the corresponding decompression module, such as: fileType=0x01→JPEG decoder; fileType=0x02 → HEVC decoder.

[0044] For ease of understanding, the following is an explanation of the professional terms of the present invention:

[0045] Figure 1 In , the file consists of header information and file body. The header information contains the slice unique identifier (GUID), layer configuration, user-defined data pointer and tile pointer information; the file body stores user-defined data (such as metadata in JSON format) and tile image data of each layer.

[0046] Embodiment 2 Based on the same concept, the present invention also proposes a pathological section flow reading device, comprising: A hierarchical tile storage module constructs a hierarchical tile storage structure: the pathological slice image is divided into multiple layers according to a preset scaling ratio, each layer contains tiles arranged in rows and columns, and hierarchical tile pointer information is generated, the hierarchical tile pointer information includes the storage location pointer and data length of each tile; Dynamic streaming tile loading module, dynamic streaming tile data loading: according to the level, x-axis coordinate and y-axis coordinate of the user's visible area, the target tile index is calculated by the formula index = level * total number of tiles in the previous level + y * number of horizontal tiles in the current level + x, and the tile data is located from the level tile pointer information based on the index; The cache management module sets a cache identifier for the requested tile data. The cache identifier is generated by the slice unique identifier, level, x-axis coordinate, and y-axis coordinate. It automatically cleans up expired caches based on the access time threshold and dynamically adjusts the cache deletion strategy when storage space is insufficient. The data compression and parsing module stores the tile data in a preset compression format and decodes it according to the compression type when reading.

[0047] Embodiment 3 This embodiment also provides an electronic device, referring to Figure 7 , comprises a memory 404 and a processor 402, wherein the memory 404 stores a computer program, and the processor 402 is configured to run the computer program to execute the steps in any of the above method embodiments.

[0048] Specifically, the processor 402 may include a central processing unit (CPU), or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or may be configured to implement one or more integrated circuits of the embodiment of the present invention.

[0049] Among them, the memory 404 may include a large capacity memory 404 for data or instructions. For example, but not limitation, the memory 404 may include a hard disk drive (HDD), a floppy disk drive, a solid state drive (SSD), a flash memory, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic tape, or a universal serial bus (USB) drive or a combination of two or more of these. In appropriate cases, the memory 404 may include a removable or non-removable (or fixed) medium. In appropriate cases, the memory 404 may be inside or outside the data processing device. In a specific embodiment, the memory 404 is a non-volatile memory. In a specific embodiment, the memory 404 includes a read-only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM). Where appropriate, the ROM may be a mask-programmed ROM, a programmable ROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory, PROM for short), an erasable PROM (Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory, EPROM for short), an electrically erasable PROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory, EEPROM for short), an electrically alterable ROM (Electrically Alterable Read-Only Memory, EAROM for short) or a flash memory (FLASH) or a combination of two or more of these. In appropriate circumstances, the RAM may be a static random access memory (SRAM) or a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), wherein the DRAM may be a fast page mode dynamic random access memory 404 (FPMDRAM), an extended data output dynamic random access memory (EDODRAM), a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), etc.

[0050] The memory 404 may be used to store or cache various data files required for processing and / or communication, as well as possible computer program instructions executed by the processor 402 .

[0051] The processor 402 implements any one of the pathological slice streaming reading methods in the above embodiments by reading and executing the computer program instructions stored in the memory 404 .

[0052] Optionally, the electronic device may further include a transmission device 406 and an input / output device 408 , wherein the transmission device 406 is connected to the processor 402 , and the input / output device 408 is connected to the processor 402 .

[0053] The transmission device 406 can be used to receive or send data via a network. Specific examples of the above-mentioned network may include a wired or wireless network provided by a communication provider of the electronic device. In one example, the transmission device includes a network adapter (Network Interface Controller, referred to as NIC), which can be connected to other network devices through a base station so as to communicate with the Internet. In one example, the transmission device 406 can be a radio frequency (Radio Frequency, referred to as RF) module, which is used to communicate with the Internet wirelessly.

[0054] Input / output devices 408 are used to input or output information.

[0055] Embodiment 4 This embodiment further provides a readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored. The computer program includes a program code for controlling a process to execute the process. The process includes the pathological section streaming reading method according to the first embodiment.

[0056] It should be noted that the specific examples in this embodiment can refer to the examples described in the above embodiments and optional implementation modes, and this embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0057] In general, various embodiments may be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuits, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects of the invention may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device, but the invention is not limited thereto. Although various aspects of the invention may be shown and described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other graphical representation, it should be understood that, as non-limiting examples, the boxes, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuits or logic, general-purpose hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0058] Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented by computer software that is executable by a data processor of a mobile device, such as in a processor entity, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. Computer software or programs (also referred to as program products) including software routines, applets and / or macros may be stored in any device-readable data storage medium, and they include program instructions for performing specific tasks. A computer program product may include one or more computer executable components configured to perform an embodiment when the program is run. One or more computer executable components may be at least one software code or a portion thereof. In addition, at this point, it should be noted that, for example, Figure 2 Any block of the logic flow in the program may represent program steps, or interconnected logic circuits, blocks and functions, or a combination of program steps and logic circuits, blocks and functions. The software may be stored on physical media such as memory chips or storage blocks implemented within a processor, magnetic media such as hard disks or floppy disks, and optical media such as, for example, DVDs and their data variants, CDs, etc. Physical media are non-transitory media.

[0059] Those skilled in the art should understand that the technical features of the above embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0060] The above embodiments only express several implementation methods of the present invention, and the descriptions thereof are relatively specific and detailed, but they cannot be understood as limiting the scope of the present invention. It should be pointed out that, for those of ordinary skill in the art, several modifications and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention, and these all belong to the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the attached claims.

Claims

1. A method for reading pathological sections by flow cytometry, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: S00, constructing a hierarchical tile storage structure: dividing the pathological slice image into multiple layers according to a preset scaling ratio, each layer comprising tiles arranged in rows and columns, and generating hierarchical tile pointer information, wherein the hierarchical tile pointer information includes a storage location pointer and a data length of each tile; S10, dynamically streaming tile data: according to the level, x-axis coordinate and y-axis coordinate of the user's visible area, the target tile index is calculated by the formula index = level * total number of tiles in the previous level + y * number of horizontal tiles in the current level + x, and the tile data is located from the level tile pointer information based on the index; S20, cache management: setting a cache identifier for the requested tile data, where the cache identifier is generated by the slice unique identifier, level, x-axis coordinate, and y-axis coordinate, automatically clearing expired cache according to the access time threshold, and dynamically adjusting the cache deletion strategy when storage space is insufficient; S30, data compression and parsing: the tile data is stored in a preset compression format, and decoded according to the compression type when reading.

2. A pathological section streaming reading method as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The level tile pointer information in step S00 is stored according to the following rules: The pointer information of each layer of tiles is recorded continuously in row and column order starting from the zeroth layer. The pointer information of each tile occupies 12 bytes, including an 8-byte storage location pointer and a 4-byte data length.

3. A pathological section streaming reading method as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: Step S00 also includes the definition of the file header protocol: The file header protocol occupies 184 bytes, including the slice unique identifier GUID, the total number of levels, the number of rows and columns of each layer of tiles, and the scaling ratio. The total number of levels does not exceed 16 levels, and the scaling ratio of each layer is 0.5 times that of the previous layer.

4. A pathological section streaming reading method as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: In step S20, the access time threshold is 15 days. When the storage space capacity is lower than the safety boundary, the threshold is automatically reduced by a preset step size until the safety boundary of the capacity is reached.

5. A pathological section streaming reading method as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that: The reading method of the level tile pointer information in step S20 is: A 12KB continuous data block is read at one time, wherein the data block contains pointer information of at least 1024 tiles, and a two-dimensional array is constructed in the memory to store the start and end positions of the pointer data.

6. A pathological section streaming reading method as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that: Step S30 also includes the storage and analysis of user-defined data: In the file header protocol, 8 bytes are reserved for storing the pointer and length of user-defined data. The user-defined data is stored in the file body in JSON format, including metadata information of pathological sections.

7. A pathological section flow reading method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that: The total number of level tiles in step S10 is calculated as follows: The total number of tiles in the nth layer is 4 times the product of the number of horizontal tiles and the number of vertical tiles in the n-1th layer, and the total number of tiles in the zeroth layer is 4.

8. A pathological section flow reading device, characterized in that: include: A hierarchical tile storage module constructs a hierarchical tile storage structure: the pathological slice image is divided into multiple layers according to a preset scaling ratio, each layer contains tiles arranged in rows and columns, and hierarchical tile pointer information is generated, the hierarchical tile pointer information includes the storage location pointer and data length of each tile; Dynamic streaming tile loading module, dynamic streaming tile data loading: according to the level, x-axis coordinate and y-axis coordinate of the user's visible area, the target tile index is calculated by the formula index = level * total number of tiles in the previous level + y * number of horizontal tiles in the current level + x, and the tile data is located from the level tile pointer information based on the index; The cache management module sets a cache identifier for the requested tile data. The cache identifier is generated by the slice unique identifier, level, x-axis coordinate, and y-axis coordinate. It automatically cleans up expired caches based on the access time threshold and dynamically adjusts the cache deletion strategy when storage space is insufficient. The data compression and parsing module stores the tile data in a preset compression format and decodes it according to the compression type when reading.

9. An electronic device comprising a memory and a processor, characterized in that: The memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to run the computer program to execute the pathological section streaming reading method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

10. A readable storage medium, characterized in that: The readable storage medium stores a computer program, wherein the computer program includes a program code for controlling a process to execute a process, wherein the process includes the pathological section streaming reading method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

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