JP2000276545A - Pathological image system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make manageable both organism tissue image and processed tissue image while relating to each other by storing these tissue images together with such link information showing that a specific processed tissue image is which image after processing of processed organism tissue image. SOLUTION: A tissue image obtained by photographing the organism tissue of a patient and a processed tissue image obtained by photographing the tissue that undergone the necessary pathological examination are stored together with the like information showing that a specific processed tissue image is which image after processing of the processed organism tissue image. A pathological image data base 200, for example, consists of two macro images of image ID#1 and ID#2 and five micro images of images of image ID#1-1, ID#2-1, ID#2-2, and ID#2-3. In such a constitution, it is possible to manage a specific micro image that is equal to the microscopic image of a preparation produced from the change to a morbid part of a specific macro image with relationship secured between both images.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information system used in pathological examination work.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As one of clinical tests at hospitals, there is a pathological test for making a definite diagnosis such as cancer. Pathological examination is a method in which a clinician (operating surgeon) performs various processes on a living tissue such as a lesion of an organ cut out of a patient by surgery, and then a pathologist examines the naked eye, a loupe, a microscope, The pathological diagnosis is made by observing the state of the tissues and cells on the preparation using an electron microscope or the like, and the diagnosis result is reported to a clinician.

[0003] The above-mentioned treatment includes a cutting treatment for shaping a living tissue to prepare a tissue piece so as to be suitable for microscopic observation of a lesion, a fixing treatment for irreversibly denaturing a protein of the living tissue, and a treatment for removing inorganic salts in the tissue. Demineralization treatment to remove, dehydration and degreasing treatment to remove water and fat in tissue, paraffin infiltration treatment to infiltrate paraffin into tissue, embedding treatment to solidify tissue pieces with paraffin to create paraffin blocks, and section from paraffin blocks Thin sections to be cut out, extension / drying processing to attach the sections to the slide glass, staining processing to dye the dried sections on the slide glass, freezing processing to reduce the time to section by rapid intraoperative tissue diagnosis is there.

In such a pathological examination, a photograph of a microscopic image of a lesion or a slide is taken and stored as a film or a slide. A photograph of a microscope image of the preparation is called a micro image, and other images of a photograph of a lesion are called a macro image. In recent years, in pathological examination work, it has been desired to store these macro images and micro images as digitized digital images instead of films and slides.

Conventionally, digital images captured by a scanner or the like have been stored without distinction between macro images and micro images. For example, the 17th Medical Informatics Alliance Conference Proceedings 79
In the pathological / surgery image filing system described on page 4, a macro image and a micro image are displayed on the same screen.

[0006]

However, in the conventional means, since a macro image and a micro image are collectively managed as a digital image, the macro image and the micro image are separately managed or displayed. Or it was difficult. In particular, when there are a plurality of macro images, it has been difficult to associate and manage which micro image is an image of a microscope image of a slide prepared from a lesion of which macro image.

[0007]

The object of the present invention is to provide a living tissue image obtained by imaging a living tissue of a patient and a processing image obtained by shooting a processed tissue, which is a living tissue obtained by subjecting the living tissue to a process necessary for a pathological examination. A tissue image can be solved by a pathological image system having a pathological examination image database in which the processed tissue image is stored together with link information indicating which biological tissue is the processed image.

In addition, a biological tissue image summary composed of a biological tissue image and a processed tissue image summary composed of captured images of the biological tissue after each processing step are created and displayed on the same screen. Pathology imaging system
The problem can be solved while improving the reference of the image.

A pathological image system characterized in that a biological tissue image summary and a processed tissue image summary are updated only from an image associated with link information to an image selected from the biological tissue image summary or the processed tissue image summary. Thus, it is possible to solve the problem while realizing more labor saving.

Further, a pathological image system characterized by locating an image associated with link information to an image selected from the biological tissue image summary or the processed tissue image summary can be solved while improving simplicity. it can.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of a pathological image system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system includes a pathological image database storage device 140, an output device 120 such as a display, an input device 130 such as a keyboard and a mouse, a control unit 101 that controls the system, and an image summary that collects a plurality of images. An image summary creation unit 102 to be created, an image summary display unit 103 that displays an image summary on the output device 120, and a selected image determination unit 104 that specifies a selected image based on input information of the input device 130 And an image summary updating unit 105 that updates the image summary based on the image specified by the selected image determining unit 104.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the pathological image database 200 stored in the pathological image database storage device 140. The pathological image database 200 has an image ID field 2 for storing an image ID for specifying an image.
10 and an image type field 22 for storing an image type
0, a parent image ID field 230 for storing an associated image ID, and an image field 240 for storing an image.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, the pathological image database 200 has two macro images of image IDs # 1 and # 2, and image IDs # 1-1, # 1-2, # 2-1 and # 2. −
2, five micro images # 2-3, and a total of seven images. The micro images of image IDs # 1-1 and # 1-2 are, as indicated by the parent image ID field 230,
This is an image of a microscope image of a slide prepared from the lesion of the macro image of image ID # 1, and image ID # 2-1,
As indicated by the parent image ID field 230, the micro images # 2-2 and # 2-3 are microscope images of the slide prepared from the lesion of the macro image with the image ID # 2.

By configuring the pathological image database in this way, it is possible to associate and manage which micro image is an image of a microscope image of a slide prepared from a lesion of which macro image.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present system. When the system starts operation, the control unit 101 reads the pathological image database 200 by the image summary creating unit 102, extracts only images stored as macros in the image type 220, and extracts images of macro images. Create a summary and the image type 22
Image summary creating step 30 for extracting only the image stored as micro in 0 and creating an image summary of the micro image
Execute 1.

The image summary may be created in advance, for example, when an image is newly registered. In that case, the step 301 may be omitted.

Next, the control section 101 causes the image summary display section 103 to execute an image summary display step 302 of outputting the image summary created in step 301 to the output device 120.

FIG. 4 shows an initial screen 4 as an example of a screen displayed on the output device 120 as a result of step 302.
00 is shown. The screen 400 includes a macro image summary 410 which is a macro image summary and a micro image summary 420 which is a micro image summary. The macro image summary 410 includes a macro image 411 of image ID # 1 and a macro image 412 of image ID # 2 extracted as a result of the processing of steps 301 and 302, and a macro image summary scroll bar 430.
By operating the scroll bar 430, the image can be scrolled back and forth. The scroll bar 430 may not be provided. The micro image summary 420 includes the image IDs # 1-1, # 1-2, # 2-1, # 2-2, and # 2 extracted as a result of the processing in steps 301 and 302.
-3 five micro images 421 to 425 (micro image 4
24, 425 are not shown), and a micro image summary scroll bar 440. The scroll bar 4
By manipulating 40, the image can be scrolled back and forth. The scroll bar 440 may not be provided.

As described above, by displaying the image summary of the macro image and the image summary of the micro image separately on the same screen, it is possible to improve the referability.

Next, the control unit 101 causes the selected image specifying unit 104 to specify a selected image specifying step of specifying whether an image displayed in the macro image summary 410 or the micro image summary 420 has been selected. 3
Execute 03.

In step 303, the control unit 101
Is the macro image 411 or the macro image 4
12 is selected, the control unit 101
Executes the selected image summary updating step 304 of extracting only the image whose parent image ID is the image selected in step 303 by the image summary updating unit 105 and updating the image summary. After the step 304 is completed, the control unit 101 executes the step 302 and redisplays the image summary.

FIG. 5 shows steps 303, 304, 3
As an example of the screen after execution of step 02, a macro image selection screen 500 when the macro image 411 is selected is shown. On the screen 500, the macro image 411 is highlighted by a bold frame or the like to indicate that it has been selected. Further, the micro images 421 and 422 having the image ID “# 1” of the macro image 412 as the parent image ID are displayed as the image summary 420.

As described above, when the user selects a macro image from the image summary of the macro image, the micro image, which is the microscope image of the slide prepared from the lesion of the selected macro image, can be obtained in a short time. Since the search can be performed, it is possible to refer to the images more efficiently.

In step 301, an image summary is created based on all images, but as shown in FIG.
Assuming that the first image (the macro image 411 in FIG. 5) is selected, an image summary may be created.

When the user selects a macro image from the image summary of the macro image, the micro image to be displayed may be selected according to the coordinates on the selected macro image. In this case, information for determining which coordinate on the macro image is selected and which micro image is selected may be stored in the pathological image database stored in the pathological image database storage device 140.

In step 304, step 3
The image summary is updated by extracting only the image whose parent image ID is the image selected in step 03, but the first image among the plurality of images whose parent image ID is the image selected in step 303 is located. Thus, the image summary may be updated.

FIG. 6 shows a macro image selection screen 600 in the case where the image summary has been searched and the image summary has been updated. The screen 60
At 0, the macro image 412 is emphasized with a thick frame or the like,
Indicates that it has been selected. The macro image 4
The image summary 420 is displayed such that the leading micro image 423 is the leftmost one of the micro images 423 to 425 having the 12 image IDs “# 2” as the parent image ID. .

Thus, when the user wants to refer to a micro image related to another macro image, the user not only selects the macro image of the image summary of the macro image but also operates the micro image summary scroll bar 440, Since it is possible to refer to the image summary of the micro image simply by scrolling forward and backward, the simplicity can be further improved.

When the user selects a micro image in the micro image summary, the macro image indicated by the parent image ID of the selected micro image may be located.

Further, when the user selects a macro image from the macro image summary, the micro image to be displayed may be located based on the coordinates on the selected macro image.
In this case, information for determining which coordinate on the macro image is selected and which micro image is selected may be stored in the pathological image database stored in the pathological image database storage device 140.

In this embodiment, the image summary is presented in a two-stage hierarchy in which the image is classified into a macro image and a micro image. For example, an image of a microscope image of a prepared slide is divided into three or more layers so that each step can be expressed in more detail, and each layer such as between a lesion and a section, between a section and a microscope image, etc. A link structure may be provided between them. In that case, an image summary may be created and presented for each layer (lesion, section, microscope image, etc.).
It also analyzes the link structure, automatically creates hierarchies,
An image summary may be created for each layer and presented.

[0032]

According to the present invention, a living tissue image obtained by imaging a living tissue of a patient and a processed tissue image obtained by imaging a processed tissue which is a living tissue obtained by subjecting the living tissue to a process necessary for a pathological examination are obtained. It is possible to associate and manage.

Further, by displaying the biological tissue image summary composed of the biological tissue image and the processed tissue image summary composed of the photographed image of the biological tissue after each processing step on the same screen, the referenceability can be improved. Can be improved.

In addition, by updating the biological tissue image summary and the processed tissue image summary only from the image associated with the link information to the image selected from the biological tissue image summary or the processed tissue image summary, the image can be searched in a short time. Since it is possible, it is possible to refer to the image more efficiently.

Further, the user can not only select the image summary again but also obtain a micro image by cueing the image associated with the link information to the image selected from the biological tissue image summary or the processed tissue image summary. Since the user can refer to the image summary simply by scrolling forward and backward, it is possible to further improve simplicity.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a pathological image system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of a pathological image database stored in a pathological image database storage device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the pathological image system.

FIG. 4 is an example of an initial screen of the pathological image system.

FIG. 5 is an example of a macro image selection screen displaying a micro image summary composed only of micro images related to a selected macro image.

FIG. 6 is an example of a macro image selection screen displaying a micro image summary in which a micro image related to a selected macro image is found.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 control unit, 102 image summary creation unit, 103
Image summary display unit, 104 Selected image specifying unit, 105
Image summary update unit, 120 output device, 130 input device, 140 pathological image database storage device, 200
Example of pathological image database, 210 image ID field, 220 image type field, 230 parent image ID field, 240 image field, 301 image summary creation step, 302 image summary display step, 3
03 Selected image judgment step, 304 Selected image summary update step, 400 Initial screen, 410 Macro image image summary, 411 Macro image with image ID # 1, 4
12 Macro image of image ID # 2, image summary of 420 micro images, 421 micro image of image ID # 1-1, 422 micro image of image ID # 1-2, 423
Micro image of image ID # 2-1, 424 image ID # 2
-2 micro image, 425 image ID # 2-3 micro image, 430 macro image summary scroll bar, 44
0 Micro image summary scroll bar, 500 Macro image selection screen displaying a micro image summary composed only of micro images related to the selected macro image, 60
0 Macro image selection screen displaying a micro image summary in which the micro images related to the selected macro image are located.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor, Satoru Mitsuyama 1-280, Higashi-Koikekubo, Kokubunji-shi, Tokyo Inside the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. 5B075 ND06 ND36 PP13 PQ02 PQ63 PQ66 UU29

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A pathological image system comprising a pathological image database storing pathological examination images, an output device, an input device, and a control unit, wherein the pathological image database captures a living tissue of a patient. A living tissue image, and a processed tissue image obtained by photographing a processed tissue, which is a living tissue after subjecting the living tissue to a process necessary for pathological examination, wherein the processed tissue image is an image of any living tissue after processing. A pathological image system characterized by storing the link information together with link information. 2. A biological tissue image summary composed of a biological tissue image, and an image summary creating unit that creates one or a plurality of processed tissue image summaries composed of captured images of the biological tissue after each processing step. 2. The pathological image system according to claim 1, further comprising an image summary display unit for simultaneously outputting the biological tissue image summary and the processed tissue image summary to the output device. 3. A selected image specifying unit for specifying an image selected from the biological tissue image summary or the processed tissue image summary based on input information of the input device, and a selected image specifying unit specified by the selected image specifying unit. 3. The pathological image system according to claim 2, comprising an image summary updating unit that updates the biological tissue image summary and the processed tissue image summary only from an image associated with the image by the link information. 4. A selected image specifying unit for specifying an image selected from the biological tissue image summary or the processed tissue image summary based on input information of the input device, and a specified image specified by the selected image specifying unit. 3. The pathological image system according to claim 2, further comprising an image summary updating unit that searches for an image associated with the image by the link information.