Ablation treatment image guide equipment with image segmentation device

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of image guide equipment, in particular to ablation treatment image guide equipment with an image segmentation device, which comprises an image acquisition device for acquiring a human tissue image, a processing device for processing the acquired image and a display device for displaying the processed image, the output end of the image acquisition device is connected with the input end of the processing device, the output end of the processing device is connected with the input end of the display device, and the processing device divides acquired image information into at least a focus area and a normal tissue area. The method comprises the steps that an image acquisition device is used for acquiring a plurality of regions, medical staff are assisted to more accurately ablate a focus region by marking each region with different colors, an image acquired by the image acquisition device is segmented into the focus region, a normal tissue region and an ablation electrode region through a processing device, and the regions are marked with different colors; and the boundary of a focus area and a normal tissue area can be clearer.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of image-guided devices, and more particularly to an ablation treatment image-guided device with an image segmentation device. Background Art

[0002] Image-guided ablation therapy is a precise and minimally invasive interventional therapy method that uses chemical or physical methods to directly act on tumor tissues under the guidance of modern imaging technologies (such as ultrasound, CT, MRI, etc.) to achieve the effect of "removing" tumors. Its advantages mainly include the following aspects: high efficiency and safety, minimally invasive, repeatable treatment, and the ability to preserve organ function.

[0003] Medical image-guided devices are different from the images captured by conventional cameras. The images obtained generally do not have colors and are only composed of different grayscales, that is, the so-called black-and-white photos in the traditional sense. Therefore, generally, the medical images obtained need to be processed before display. Traditional medical image processing includes denoising, enhancement, sharpening, deblurring, super-resolution reconstruction, etc. However, the existing processed images are still images composed of different grayscales on the display screen, and the boundaries between the lesion area and the normal tissue area are blurred. During the ablation treatment process, doctors can only expand the ablation treatment range based on their own experience to ensure that the lesion area is completely killed. However, blindly expanding the ablation treatment range also causes irreversible damage to the normal tissue cells of the human body. Based on the above situation, it is necessary to design an ablation treatment image-guided device with an image segmentation device to solve the above problems. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The present invention provides an ablation treatment image-guided device with an image segmentation device. By segmenting the images of the image acquisition device, labeling the segmented areas with different colors, and then displaying them, medical staff can clearly observe the boundary between the lesion area and the normal tissue area, so as to more accurately ablate the lesion area during the ablation treatment process.

[0005] The technical problems solved by the present invention are realized by the following technical solutions:

[0006] The present invention provides an ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device, which includes an image acquisition device for acquiring human tissue images, a processing device for processing the images acquired by the image acquisition device, and a display device for displaying the processed images. The output end of the image acquisition device is connected to the input end of the processing device, and the output end of the processing device is connected to the input end of the display device. The process of the processing device processing the images is to divide the acquired image information into at least a lesion area and a normal tissue area, and assist medical staff to more accurately ablate the lesion area by labeling different colors for each area.

[0007] Preferably, when the ablation electrode is inserted into the lesion area, the processing device divides the acquired image into an ablation electrode area, a lesion area, and a normal tissue area.

[0008] Preferably, during the operation of the ablation electrode, the processing device divides the acquired image into an ablation electrode area, a lesion area, a normal tissue area, and a penumbra area.

[0009] Preferably, the processing device also has a comparison function, which compares the segmented images acquired during the ablation treatment process with the segmented images during the non-treatment process to determine whether the penumbra area completely covers the lesion area.

[0010] Preferably, the processing device also judges the range where the penumbra area exceeds the lesion area through the comparison function and labels the exceeded range area with a color different from other areas.

[0011] Preferably, it further includes an alarm device, which controls the alarm device to work when the processing device judges that the range where the penumbra area exceeds the lesion area is greater than a set threshold.

[0012] Preferably, the alarm device is an audible and visual alarm.

[0013] Preferably, the images acquired by the image acquisition device are CT imaging, ultrasonic imaging, or magnetic resonance imaging.

[0014] The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: By dividing the images obtained by the image acquisition device through the processing device, the images are divided into a lesion area, a normal tissue area, and an ablation electrode area, and different colors are labeled for multiple areas, which can facilitate medical staff to more clearly observe the boundary between the lesion area and the normal tissue area, thereby facilitating medical staff to more accurately ablate the lesion area and reducing the damage to normal tissues.

[0015] The processing device also has a comparison function. By comparing the lesion area before ablative treatment with the halo sign area during the ablative treatment process, it determines whether the halo sign area is completely covered. At the same time, when the range of the halo sign area exceeding the lesion area is greater than the threshold, it controls the alarm device to give an alarm. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings required for use in the description of the embodiments or the prior art. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those of ordinary skill in the art, without creative efforts, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings.

[0017] Figure 1 Structural schematic diagram of the present invention:

[0018] Figure 2 Schematic circuit diagram of the first state of the present invention;

[0019] Figure 3 Schematic circuit diagram of the second state of the present invention;

[0020] Figure 4 Block diagram of the composition of the first embodiment of the processing device of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 5 Block diagram of the composition of the second embodiment of the processing device of the present invention;

[0022] Figure 6 Flowchart of the steps of the ablative treatment process of the present invention.

[0023] In the figure, 1, image acquisition device; 2, processing device; 201, segmentation module; 202, annotation module; 203, comparison module; 3, display device; 4, alarm device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0024] In order to make the technical means, creative features, achieved purposes and effects of the present invention easy to understand, the present invention will be further described below with reference to specific illustrations.

[0025] In order to enable those skilled in the art to know the innovative points of the present invention, the ablation treatment process involved in the present invention is first explained. The ablation treatment process is to use chemical or physical methods to directly act on the lesion area to achieve inactivation of the lesion area. Commonly used equipment such as ablation electrodes inactivate the lesion area through high temperature. Of course, there is also a method of using freezing to kill the lesion area. During the process of inserting the ablation electrode into the human body, the image guidance device can be accurately inserted from the outside of the human body into the lesion area. At the same time, the image guidance device is also used to assist medical personnel in observing during the process of the ablation electrode ablating the lesion area. Existing image guidance equipment includes CT, magnetic resonance or ultrasound equipment.

[0026] A problem existing in the existing ablation treatment process is that the images obtained by the image-guided equipment are mostly black-and-white pictures composed of different grayscale levels. During the ablation treatment process, the boundary between the lesion area and the normal tissue area is blurred, resulting in the inability of medical personnel to accurately perform ablation treatment on the lesion area during the ablation treatment, which easily leads to incomplete lesion ablation treatment and a large area of normal tissue damage.

[0027] Based on the above problems, reference Figure 1 and Figure 2 The present invention provides an ablation therapy image-guided device with an image segmentation device, which includes an image acquisition device 1, a processing device 2 and a display device 3. The image acquisition device 1 is used to acquire tissue images of the human body, which can specifically use black-and-white images obtained by existing CT, magnetic resonance or ultrasound equipment. Figure 1 In the figure, a CT device is used as the image acquisition device 1 for illustration. The input end of the processing device 2 is connected to the output end of the image acquisition device 1, and is used to process the black-and-white image obtained from the image acquisition device 1. In addition to the existing processing methods (such as denoising, enhancement, sharpening, deblurring, etc.), it also has an image segmentation processing function, which divides the acquired black-and-white image of human tissue into multiple regions, wherein the multiple regions at least include lesion regions and normal tissue regions, and distinguishes different regions by marking different colors. The input end of the display device 3 is connected to the output end of the processing device 2, and is used to display the image processed by the processing device 2, that is, to display images with different color regions. Since the colors of the lesion region and the normal tissue region are different, the sense of boundary is enhanced, which can make it easier for medical personnel to accurately ablate the lesion region.

[0028] It should be further elaborated that the segmentation function of the processing device 2 has been applied in existing image processing, and there are various image segmentation methods. For example, the convolutional neural network FCN and U-NET are both CNN architectures for image segmentation in the field of deep learning. However, U-NET has a unique U-shaped structure. By means of skip connections, it combines the high-resolution features of the encoder with the upsampled features of the decoder, which helps to restore the lost spatial information and is more suitable for complex medical image segmentation tasks. Therefore, the processing device 2 of the present invention preferably uses the U-NET method to segment the acquired human tissue images. Since U-NET is an existing technology, it will not be elaborated in detail here.

[0029] Although the present invention uses existing image segmentation methods to process images, compared with the existing ablation treatment process, the images displayed by the image guidance device of the present invention are essentially different from the images displayed in the traditional ablation treatment process. The difference lies in that, firstly, different regions are segmented and marked with different colors, and the boundary between the lesion region and the normal tissue region is stronger, which is more convenient for observation. At the same time, in addition to segmenting the lesion region and the normal tissue region, the present invention also segments the ablation electrode and the halo region generated during the ablation process. The specific reference is as follows.

[0030] When the ablation electrode is inserted into the lesion region, the processing device 2 can also segment the ablation electrode region in the acquired human tissue image, that is, the ablation electrode region, the lesion region and the normal tissue region can be segmented in the acquired human tissue image at this time, which is convenient for medical staff to accurately know the position of the ablation electrode corresponding to the lesion region when inserting the ablation electrode.

[0031] When the ablation electrode performs ablation treatment on the lesion region, due to the inactivation of the tissue in the lesion region under the action of the ablation electrode, the image information characteristics corresponding to the lesion region change. Taking the ablation of the lesion region by heating the ablation electrode as an example, the water inside the tissue in the lesion region evaporates and inactivates after being heated, and the overall appearance will change in color and shape. Doctors often call this phenomenon a halo. The halo spreads gradually outward from the position of the ablation electrode. When the range of the halo gradually completely covers the lesion region, it is considered that the ablation treatment is completed at this time. In order to facilitate medical staff to better observe the halo region, the processing device 2 also marks it with a color different from other regions when identifying the halo region.

[0032] Furthermore, the processing device 2 also has a comparison function, which is used to compare the segmented images obtained during the ablation treatment process with the segmented images obtained before the treatment, to determine whether the penumbra region completely covers the lesion region, so as to avoid omission of unablated parts in the lesion region. At the same time, this comparison function is also used to mark the area where the penumbra region exceeds the lesion region with a color different from other colors, so that medical staff can know the area of normal tissue affected by ablation through this colored area. (Generally, during the ablation process, in order to ensure that the lesion region can be completely inactivated, the ablation area will be enlarged to fully ensure complete ablation of the lesion region. At this time, part of the ablation area will extend into the normal tissue region, that is, the area exceeding the lesion region).

[0033] Furthermore, referring to Figure 3 , in order to avoid excessive damage to normal tissue during the ablation process, that is, the area where the penumbra region exceeds the lesion region is relatively large, an alarm device 4 is also provided. When the processing device 2 determines that the range where the penumbra region exceeds the lesion region is relatively large, it controls the alarm device 4 to work, prompting medical staff that the current normal tissue damage is relatively large, which is convenient for medical staff to terminate the ablation process or change the position of the ablation electrode to ablate other regions of the lesion. The alarm device 4 can be an audible and visual alarm, and its installation position can be on the display device 3 or on the image acquisition device 1. Specifically, when the range where the penumbra region exceeds the lesion region is set to exceed 5 mm or 1 cm, the alarm device 4 is controlled to work.

[0034] For those skilled in the art to better understand the structure of the processing device 2 of the present invention, referring to Figure 4 , the interior of the processing device 2 includes a segmentation module 201 for implementing the segmentation function and a marking module 202 for marking the segmented regions with colors.

[0035] Furthermore, based on the premise of having the segmentation module 201 and the marking module 202, the structure of the processing device 2 also has a comparison module 203, which can compare the segmented images before ablation treatment with the segmented images during the ablation treatment process to better assist medical staff.

[0036] Furthermore, the method for the working process of an ablation treatment image guidance device with an image segmentation device provided by the present invention is as follows;

[0037] S1, obtain the corresponding image of the human tissue through the image acquisition device 1

[0038] S2, segment the obtained human tissue image based on the segmentation algorithm, and the segmented image at least includes a lesion region, a normal tissue region, an ablation electrode region, and a penumbra region after tumor ablation.

[0039] S3, perform color marking on different divided regions to better assist medical staff in the ablation treatment process.

[0040] S4, compare the segmented images of the ablation treatment process with the segmented images before treatment. If the area of the halo sign region exceeds the area of the lesion region by a large margin, control the alarm module to work, prompt the medical staff, and perform color marking on the halo sign part that exceeds the lesion region with a color different from other regions.

[0041] The above shows and describes the basic principles, main features and advantages of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should understand that the present invention is not limited by the above embodiments. What is described in the above embodiments and the specification only illustrates the principles of the present invention. Without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, the present invention will have various changes and improvements, and these changes and improvements all fall within the scope of the present invention claimed. The scope of protection claimed by the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device, comprising an image acquisition device (1) for acquiring human tissue images, a processing device (2) for processing the images acquired by the image acquisition device (1), and a display device (3) for displaying the processed images. The output end of the image acquisition device is connected to the input end of the processing device (2), and the output end of the processing device (2) is connected to the input end of the display device (3), characterized in that, The process of the processing device (2) processing the image is to divide the acquired image information into at least a lesion area and a normal tissue area, and assist medical staff to more accurately ablate the lesion area by labeling each area with different colors.

2. The ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device according to claim 1, wherein When the ablation electrode is inserted into the lesion area, the processing device (2) divides the acquired image into an ablation electrode area, a lesion area, and a normal tissue area.

3. The ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, During the operation of the ablation electrode, the processing device (2) divides the acquired image into an ablation electrode area, a lesion area, a normal tissue area, and a halo sign area.

4. The ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device according to claim 3, wherein, The processing device (2) also has a comparison function, which compares the segmented images obtained during the ablation treatment process with the segmented images during the non-treatment process to determine whether the halo sign area completely covers the lesion area.

5. The ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device according to claim 4, characterized in that, The processing device (2) also judges the range where the halo sign area exceeds the lesion area through the comparison function and labels the exceeded range area with a color different from other areas.

6. The ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device according to claim 5, characterized in that, It also includes an alarm device (4). When the processing device (2) judges that the range where the halo sign area exceeds the lesion area is greater than the set threshold, it controls the alarm device (4) to work.

7. An ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The alarm device (4) is an audible and visual alarm.

8. An ablation treatment image guiding device with an image segmentation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The image acquired by the image acquisition device (1) is a CT image, an ultrasound image, or a magnetic resonance image.

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