Medical Brain Image Processing for Collateral Circulation Delays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical imaging technologies for diagnosing cerebral infarction, such as 4D-CT Angiography and left-right ratio analysis, face challenges in accurately evaluating collateral circulation due to long imaging times and high radiation exposure or insufficient consideration of blood flow arrival time differences between affected and healthy brain sides.
Innovation Solution
A medical image processing device that acquires and processes four-dimensional CT images of the brain at multiple time phases, deriving feature amounts and analyzing time phase delays between affected and healthy brain sides to quantify collateral circulation, enabling accurate disease evaluation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If 4D-CTA imaging is performed to obtain detailed analysis including blood flow arrival time, then measurement precision of collateral circulation is improved, but imaging time increases and radiation exposure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the brain into affected side and healthy side regions, then analyzes blood flow characteristics in each segment across multiple time phases. This segmentation allows targeted analysis of collateral circulation pathways without requiring complete 4D-CTA imaging of the entire brain, thereby reducing imaging time while maintaining measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary identification of blood vessels and calculation of feature amounts (such as mean intensity, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis) at each time phase before final analysis. This preliminary processing enables efficient extraction of collateral circulation characteristics without requiring repeated full 4D-CTA scans, thus reducing imaging time while preserving measurement accuracy.
2Measurement precision
If 4D-CTA imaging is performed to obtain detailed analysis including blood flow arrival time, then measurement precision of collateral circulation is improved, but radiation exposure increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the brain into affected and healthy sides and focusing analysis on specific vascular regions, the patent reduces the volume of tissue requiring imaging. This targeted approach maintains measurement precision of collateral circulation while minimizing radiation exposure compared to complete brain imaging.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes changes in image intensity parameters (mean intensity, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis) across time phases to characterize blood flow dynamics. This parameter-based analysis allows accurate assessment of collateral circulation using fewer images than traditional methods, thereby reducing radiation exposure while maintaining measurement precision.
3Loss of time
If left-right ratio analysis is used to evaluate collateral circulation, then imaging time is reduced, but measurement precision is insufficient due to difference in blood flow arrival time between affected and healthy sides
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary analysis of blood flow arrival times and identifies time phase delays between affected and healthy sides before calculating the left-right ratio. This preliminary temporal alignment ensures that comparisons are made at corresponding phases, thereby maintaining measurement precision while using efficient single-time-point imaging.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a temporal dimension by analyzing multiple time phases and calculating time phase delays, then uses this temporal information to adjust the spatial left-right ratio analysis. This dimensional extension allows accurate evaluation of collateral circulation despite differences in blood flow arrival times, maintaining measurement precision while keeping imaging time short.
Data Source
AI summary
A medical image processing device of an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to acquire medical images of a plurality of time phases of a brain of a subject, having one of left and right sides of the brain as an affected side and the other as a healthy side, to derive feature amounts related to collateral circulation in the brain of the subject based on the acquired original medical images, and to analyze a time phase delay in the affected side relative to the healthy side based on a result of comparing the feature amounts of the affected side and the healthy side for each of the plurality of time phases.