Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Shenyang Neusoft Medical Systems Co., Ltd.

YanHua Shen

Yue Ma

Dan Zhao

Lan Zhang

Di Zhang

Yue Zheng

Ling Fu

In an embodiment, a method () is described. The method comprises receiving () data corresponding to a plurality of radiographic imaging slices of a body. The method further comprises determining () a position of a needle inserted in the body. The determination is based on combining information from at least one of the radiographic imaging slices comprising an indication of a first portion of the needle outside the body and at least one other of the radiographic imaging slices comprising an indication of a second portion of the needle inside the body. A combined needle region is generated by merging data corresponding to a position of the first portion of the needle outside the body with data corresponding to a position of the second portion of the needle inside the body. The method further comprises generating () display data for providing a visual representation of the needle in an image of the body in combination with a visual representation of at least the first and second portions of the needle superimposed on the image. The image is in a plane that is digitally tilted with respect to a plane parallel to the plurality of radiographic imaging slices.

Determining needle position

There provides an apparatus for recognizing a head region in a CT lateral image of a subject, comprising: a deriving unit for deriving a first image representing a bone of the subject from the CT lateral image; an extracting unit for extracting a boundary curve indicating an outer contour of a region comprising at least part of the occipital bone and at least part of the cervical vertebra of the subject in the first image; and a determining unit for determining a first pixel position indicating a bottommost point of the head region of the subject, based on a shape feature parameter of the boundary curve.

Image processing apparatus and method

The present invention provides a method for spine position detection, comprising: obtaining 2D geometrical configuration of a current vertebra body selected from a plurality of vertebra bodies visible in an image on a sagittal plane defined by a horizontal component of an initial point, a geometrical template being applied to the current vertebra body and the 2D geometrical configuration of the current vertebra body being adjusted by a predetermined correlation evaluation; searching adjacent edge points of next vertebra body corresponding to a number of edge points of the current vertebra body by identifying the gradient values along the direction substantially perpendicular to the edge of the current vertebra body based on the adjusted 2D geometrical configuration of the current vertebra body; calculating height of an intervertebral disc located between the current vertebra body and the next vertebra body based on an average of the distances between the edge points of the current vertebra body and the corresponding adjacent edge points of the next vertebra body; determining 2D geometrical configuration of the next vertebra body based on the height of the intervertebral disc and the adjusted 2D geometrical configuration of the current vertebra body. Then the transverse images of the intervertebral discs can be formed to serve for diagnosis.

Method and system for spine position detection

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Shenyang, China

YanHua Shen