JPH0981646A - Medical image inspection device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To retrieve and display the past image of the same photographing conditions as the photographing conditions set at present by one operation by providing a retrieval means for taking out the one matching with retrieval conditions from the photographing conditions related to kept and managed image data. SOLUTION: In the case of retrieving the past image matched with the retrieval conditions at present and displaying it by an output device 23, a user uses a mouse and presses a past image button. A control part 5 detects that past image retrieval is instructed from an input control part 14 and the control part 5 stores a photographing condition item and a value held by a photographing condition control part 10 in a control memory 6 and sends a retrieval request to a data management part 7. The control part 5 which obtains the file name of the pertinent image data by the retrieval makes the data management part 7 load the image data from an external storage device 9 to an image memory 8. A display control part 13 outputs the contents of the image memory 8 to the output device (CRT or the like) 23 as video signals.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a medical image inspection apparatus for diagnosing a patient, and more particularly to a medical image inspection apparatus (system) having a function of storing and managing inspection images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an inspection using an image inspection apparatus, an engineer takes an image according to an instruction in an inspection request form written by a doctor. The imaged image is read by a doctor to diagnose the patient. However, in ultrasonic examination and endoscopy, a doctor often makes an examination and makes a diagnosis immediately after the examination. In this case, the doctor conducts the examination while referring to the content described in the patient's chart, and writes the diagnostic result in the chart. On the other hand, there is a medical image storage management system that can electronically store captured images and search for and display an image of a specific past examination.
A doctor who interprets images retrieves images by using information such as patient numbers, examination numbers, and important images. By using this system to make a diagnosis by comparing it with past images, the rate of disease detection is improved.

When a doctor conducts an ultrasonic examination or an endoscopic examination, the doctor makes a diagnosis while comparing it with a photograph of a past examination attached to a medical chart. In a medical image storage management system, it is considered that a past image is sent to an inspection device so that it can be compared with the past image during inspection.

[0004]

However, during the ultrasonic examination and the endoscopic examination, the doctor is busy with the examination and the operation of the apparatus, and it is troublesome to perform a past image retrieval operation for comparison. Particularly in the case of an endoscopic examination, a part of the examination device is inserted into the body, so that a medical accident may occur unless the examination is concentrated.

When comparing a past image with a taken inspection image or a currently taken inspection image, it is necessary to select a past image having the same photographing condition as the photographing condition of this inspection image, and it is not possible to concentrate on the examination. There's a problem.

When comparing the inspection image to be photographed with the past image, it may be desired to photograph under the same conditions as the past image to be compared. At this time, the imaging conditions of the inspection device must be set with reference to past images and inspection history, which increases the inspection time and decreases inspection throughput.
There is a problem that the burden on the patient increases.

The inspection image includes an image judged to be important for making a diagnosis, and this image is likely to be referred to in the next inspection. However, designating an important image during the inspection is cumbersome, and there is a problem that the inspection efficiency is reduced.
In addition, a doctor may make a diagnosis on an image taken by a technician. However, if the doctor searches for the taken image again at this time, there is a problem that the diagnosis efficiency is very poor. is there.

In order to solve the above problems, a first object of the present invention is to enable a single operation to retrieve and display a past image having the same shooting condition as the currently set shooting condition. The second purpose is to enable the photographing condition of the inspection image to be the photographing condition of the past image with one operation, and the third purpose is to have the same condition as the past important image. The case is to enable the captured image to be an important image.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided in a medical image inspection apparatus for photographing an image for diagnosing a patient, a photographing means for photographing a diagnosis site of the patient, and the photographing means. Shooting condition setting means for setting shooting conditions, data management means for storing and managing the shooting conditions set by the shooting condition setting means and the image data obtained by the shooting means, and image search conditions are set. Search condition setting means, a search means for extracting a shooting condition that matches the search condition set by the search condition setting means from the shooting conditions associated with the image data stored and managed by the data management means, and the search means And display means for displaying the image data.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the search condition setting means sets the image search condition to the current imaging condition of the medical image inspection apparatus. The present invention according to claim 3 is
The data management means is configured to store and manage the information indicating the important image in association with the image data, and the search means uses the information indicating the important image associated with the image data by the data management means as the search condition. Set up.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the photographing condition setting means changes the photographing condition to the photographing condition of the image searched by the searching means. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided means for comparing a photographing condition of the image photographed by the photographing means with a photographing condition of the image searched for by the searching means, and the data managing means for the searched image. The image taken under the same shooting conditions as the above is set to be an important image.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided means for comparing the shooting condition of the shot image with the shooting condition of the searched image, and the searched image is found when the searched image is an important image. And an image captured under the same image capturing condition as the image capturing condition of 1.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the photographing means uses ultrasonic waves or an endoscope. According to the medical image inspection apparatus of the present invention described in claim 1 and claim 2 described above, the past image of the same imaging condition as the currently set imaging condition is searched and displayed by one operation. be able to.

According to the medical image inspection apparatus of the present invention as set forth in claims 3 and 4, since the photographing condition of the inspection image can be set as the photographing condition of the past image by one operation, An image for comparison with the image can be easily taken, and the quality of diagnosis by comparison with the past image is improved.

Further, according to the medical image inspection apparatus of the present invention as defined in claims 5 and 6, when the same condition as the past important image is taken, the taken image is taken as the important image, so that the same imaging condition is continuously applied. Can be stored as an important image. When referring to images, comparative images taken under the same conditions can be obtained simply by searching for important images, so comparative diagnosis such as follow-up can be performed in a short time and with high quality. .

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an embodiment of the medical image inspection apparatus of the present invention. A medical image inspection apparatus according to the present invention includes an image inspection apparatus (hereinafter referred to as an inspection apparatus) 1 that images the inside of a patient and an image display / management apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a management apparatus) that performs image capturing, display, and storage management. Call) 2. The devices are connected by a network 3 for transmitting and receiving control signals and a signal line 4 for transmitting the video signal of the inspection device 1 to the management device 2. Two devices are one
They may be connected by an internal bus or the like in one housing.

FIG. 2 shows an internal block diagram of an embodiment of the medical image inspection apparatus of the present invention. The medical image inspection apparatus of the present invention is roughly classified into an inspection apparatus 1 and a management apparatus 2 as shown in FIG. The control unit 5 controls the operation of the entire apparatus according to the program stored in the control memory 6.

The control memory 6 also stores patient information, examination information, imaging conditions and the like. In the case of ultrasonic diagnosis, the imaging conditions are, for example, diagnostic mode such as B mode or Doppler, imaging position and angle of diagnostic image, type of probe such as sector, linear, convex, radial, etc. The frequency of the ultrasonic wave to be caused. In the case of endoscopic diagnosis, for example, the types of probes such as direct view, side view, strabismus, and ultrasonic wave, and light intensity, hue (Hu), chroma (Cr)
oma), etc., or the imaging position and angle of the diagnostic image.

The data management section 7 manages image data in association with imaging conditions, patient information and the like. The search or update request from the control unit 5 is executed and the result is returned to the control unit 5. This may be realized by a relational database system (hereinafter referred to as RDBMS). In that case, FIG.
Management is performed using the data structure shown in. That is, the image file stored in the image storage medium is managed by the patient table, the examination table, and the image table. Data such as patient ID, patient name, sex, date of birth is stored in the patient table, and the examination ID and patient are stored in the examination table.
Data such as an ID, an inspection date, an inspection type, and the like are stored, and an image table stores data such as an inspection ID, an image ID, a file name, shooting conditions, and an important mark. The data management unit 7 loads / saves the designated image data between the image memory 8 and the external storage device (for example, hard disk) 9.
It has a function to do e. This can be done with the stored procedure that comes with the RDBMS.

The photographing condition control unit 10 includes an inspection device control unit 2
A command for setting the shooting condition is sent to 1, and the current shooting condition is held. When the imaging condition is changed on the inspection device 1 side, the imaging condition held by receiving the signal from the inspection device control unit 21 is changed.

The electrocardiographic analysis unit 11 receives the electrocardiographic signal from the examination apparatus 1 and sends the signal to the imaging condition control unit 10 when an arbitrary phase (for example, R wave) of the electrocardiogram appears. The image collection unit 12 receives the video signal from the inspection device 1, digitizes the video signal according to a command from the control unit 5, and stores the digitized video signal in the image memory 8.

The display control unit 13 outputs the image data stored in the image memory 8 to the output device (for example, CRT) 23.
To be displayed. The control unit 5 controls the timing and position of display.

The input control unit 14 sends an input signal from the input device (keyboard, mouse, etc.) 21 to the control unit 5.
In the input using a mouse, the user's request is interpreted from the position of the screen when the signal is input and sent to the control unit 5.

In the above embodiment, the inspection device and the management device are divided into two devices, but they may be connected by an internal bus or the like in one housing. Less than,
The operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described.

FIG. 3 shows a display screen of the management device 2 under inspection. The screen may be displayed on the inspection device 1. The user can operate by moving the mouse pointer with the mouse and pressing the mouse button. For example, each function is executed by placing the mouse pointer on the past image button 15, the past important image button 16, the photographing condition copy button 17, and the photographing start button 18 and clicking.

Immediately after the start of the inspection, neither the present image window 24 for displaying the present inspection image nor the past image window 25 for displaying the retrieved past image is displayed. By inputting the patient information or the examination ID from the input device of the examination apparatus 1 or the input device (keyboard or the like) 22 of the management apparatus 2, the entered information is displayed in a predetermined field on the screen. Further, the setting value is displayed in a predetermined field by setting the photographing condition with the inspection device 1.

When the photographing conditions are set from the input device of the inspection apparatus 1, the inspection apparatus control unit 21 changes the photographing condition control unit 1
The shooting condition item set to 0 and its value are transmitted. The imaging condition control unit 10 receives the signal and holds the value. Even when information such as patient information is input from the input device of the inspection apparatus 1, the value is acquired by the same processing as the imaging condition and the information is stored in the control memory 6.

Input device (keyboard) 22 of the management device 2
When the shooting condition is set by the control unit 5, the control unit 5 sends the set condition item and its value to the shooting condition control unit 10. The imaging condition control unit 10 transmits the setting items and values to the inspection device control unit 21 together with the imaging condition setting command, and changes the device settings.

Next, the operation of retrieving a past image that matches the current inspection condition and displaying it on the output device 23 will be described. The process flow is shown in FIG. The user presses the past image button 15 using the mouse. The control unit 5 detects that the past image search is instructed by the input control unit 14 (FIG. 5).
Processing 1). When the control unit 5 issues a data request of the current shooting condition to the shooting condition control unit 10 (process 2 in FIG. 5), the shooting condition control unit 10 sends the held shooting condition items and values to the control unit 5. The control unit 5 stores the condition items and values in the control memory 6
To be stored. Next, the control unit 5 sends a search request to the data management unit 7 using the information stored in the control memory 6 (process 3 in FIG. 5). The search request condition is, for example, that the patient ID in the examination table and the patient ID currently being examined match, the examination ID in the examination table and the examination ID in the image table match, and the imaging condition in the image table and the current examination condition. The shooting conditions of are the same. FIG. 6 shows the search request expressed by an SQL statement of RDBMS. That is, the first line of this SQL statement shows the search for the file name in the image table, the second line shows that the search is performed from the inspection table and the image table, and the third and subsequent lines show. The search conditions are shown. The search request is not limited to the SQL statement, and any other method may be used as long as the search condition can be specified.

Here, the patient ID, examination ID, and image ID are identifiers that uniquely identify each of the patient, examination, and image, and are the primary keys in the patient table, examination table, and image table. In the following, it is assumed that the data management unit 7 automatically assigns an ID and that there is no contradiction such as the same ID existing in the table. Automatic ID assignment can be realized by issuing a serial number.

When there are a plurality of shooting condition items, a means may be provided for the user to specify the shooting condition items to be matched, and an image that matches the specified condition items may be searched. Alternatively, an image in which all the inspection conditions match may be searched. Alternatively, an image that matches any one of the search conditions may be searched. Alternatively, the search may be performed according to search items that are prioritized in advance.

When there are a plurality of past examinations, the images in all the examinations are to be searched. Alternatively, the image of the previous examination a specified number of times may be the search target. This can be realized by arranging and taking out the inspection dates of the inspection table.

The control unit 5, which has obtained the file name of the corresponding image data by the search, issues a command to the data management unit 7 to load the image data from the external storage device 9 into the image memory 8, and the data management unit 7 sends this. Execute (process 4 in FIG. 5). The control unit 5 sends a command to display the loaded image to the display control unit 13, and the display control unit 13 outputs the content of the image memory 8 to the output device (CRT or the like) 23 as a video signal (process 5 in FIG. 5). ).

Further, the control unit 5 acquires the information of the corresponding image data stored in the image table by the same method and stores it in the control memory 6. That is, the information of the image data including the image ID, the shooting condition, and the important mark is stored.

Next, a means for retrieving past important images will be described. The user clicks the past important image button using the mouse pointer. The control unit 5 detects a user's instruction and generates an SQL sentence, similarly to the means for searching for an image having the same shooting condition. Here, it is assumed that the search condition is that the important image mark in the image table is true. That is, the WHERE clause of the SQL sentence is set to “image table.important mark = True”. After that, the image is output to the output device (CRT) 23 by the same processing as the means for outputting the image in which the photographing conditions match.

Next, a means for changing the current photographing condition to the photographing condition of the searched image will be described. The flow of processing is shown in FIG. The user clicks the shooting condition copy button 17 with the mouse pointer, and the control unit 5 interprets the instruction (process 1 in FIG. 7). The control unit 5 refers to the shooting condition of the displayed past image from the control memory 6, and sends the condition item and its value to the shooting condition control unit 10 (process 2 in FIG. 7).
The imaging condition control unit 10 transmits the condition item and the value to the inspection device control unit 21 together with the imaging condition setting command, and changes the device setting (process 3 in FIG. 7).

Next, a means for photographing and storing an image will be described. The process flow is shown in FIG. When the photographed image is displayed on the inspection apparatus 1, the user clicks the photographing start button 18 (process 1 in FIG. 8). The imaging start instruction may be an input device arranged at a desired position of the inspection device 1. The captured image may be a still image or a moving image. The control unit 5 sends an image collection command to the image collection unit 12, and the image collection unit 12 digitizes the image and stores it in the image memory 8 (process 2 in FIG. 8). The stored image is displayed on the output device (CRT) 23 by the display control unit 13 (process 3 in FIG. 8). Further, the control unit 5 inquires of the shooting condition control unit 10 about the current shooting conditions, and stores the shooting conditions in the control memory 6 (process 2 in FIG. 8).

When shooting a moving image, it may be desired to shoot at arbitrary timing as shooting conditions. For example, there is a case where an electrocardiogram is desired to be imaged when there are R waves. At this time,
The photographing condition is set in the photographing condition control unit 10 so as to photograph with the R wave, and after the photographing start button 18 is pressed, the control unit 5 waits for an instruction from the photographing condition control unit 10. The imaging condition control unit 10 sends an instruction to start imaging to the control unit 5 by using the R wave signal from the electrocardiographic analysis unit 11 as a trigger. Thereafter, the same processing as the above-described shooting is performed, so that an image satisfying the shooting conditions can be shot.

When the user clicks the image storage button 19, the image is stored. The flow of the storage process is shown in FIG. If the Mark button 20 is pressed before the storage instruction, the captured image is stored as an important image. (Process 4 in FIG. 8) When storage is instructed, the control unit 5 stores the captured image data in the image memory 8 as a file in the external storage device 9 (Sav.
e) Yes. The file name may be any name that uniquely identifies the image data, and is given by the data management unit 7 as a name based on, for example, the inspection ID and the number in the order of photographing. The data management unit 7 sends the assigned file name to the control unit 5 (process 1 in FIG. 9).

The control unit 5 generates a registration request to the image table based on the shooting condition stored in the control memory 6 and the file name sent from the data management unit 7 and sends it to the data management unit 7 ( Process 2 in FIG. 9). The data management unit 7 updates the data management information based on this registration request (FIG. 9).
Processing 3). FIG. 10 shows a registration request represented by an SQL sentence. When the important image mark is specified before the storage instruction, the value of the important image flag is registered as True. After the registration is completed, the control unit 5 sends an instruction to the user indicating that the registration is completed to the display control unit 13, and the registration completion message is displayed on the output device (CRT) 23.

Next, description will be given of means for setting an important image when the image taking conditions of the image taken in the current examination and the image taking condition of the retrieved important image are the same. Figure 1 shows the process flow
It is shown in FIG. In the example below, the shooting conditions are compared when the displayed past image is an important image, but the inspection of whether the image is an important image is omitted and the shooting conditions are compared. May be.

In the image capturing means, after the control unit 5 stores the capturing conditions in the control memory 6 (process 2 in FIG. 11), it is checked whether the past image currently displayed is an important image. (Process 3 in FIG. 11). If it is an important image, the shooting condition of the shot image is compared with the shooting condition of the displayed past image (process 4 in FIG. 11). As a result of the comparison, if the photographing conditions are the same, the important mark flag of the photographed image is changed to True, and the display controller 13 is instructed to display that the image is an important image, and the output device (CRT) 23 Is displayed (process 5 in FIG. 11). For example, the Mark button 2 can be used to indicate that the image is an important image.
0 is set as a toggle button, and the display of the button is changed to the ON state (process 6 in FIG. 11). After the user shoots Mark
By looking at the state of the button 20, it is possible to confirm whether or not the image is an important image. To release the important image mark, click the Mark button 20 with the mouse to turn it off, and the controller 5 interprets that fact.
The control unit 5 sets the important image mark flag in the control memory 6 to Fa.
Release by setting to lse.

When there are a plurality of shooting conditions, the important image may be taken when all the shooting conditions match, or the important image may be taken when predetermined shooting condition items match. For example, if the R-wave is used as a trigger for photographing, it may be an important image.

[0044]

With the device of the present invention according to claims 1 and 2, it is possible to retrieve and display a past image having the same shooting condition as the currently set shooting condition by one operation. In addition, the number of operations for searching is reduced, the examination time is shortened, the examination throughput is improved, and the burden on the patient is reduced.

Further, since the photographing condition of the inspection image can be set as the photographing condition of the past image by one operation by the apparatus of the present invention according to claims 3 and 4, for comparison with the past image. Images can be easily taken, and the quality of diagnosis is improved by comparison with past images.

Further, according to the apparatus of the present invention according to claims 5 and 6, when the same condition as the past important image is taken, the taken image is taken as the important image, so that the same taking condition is continuously stored as the important image. it can. When referring to images, comparative images taken under the same conditions can be obtained simply by searching for important images, so comparative diagnosis such as follow-up can be performed in a short time and with high quality. .

Further, reducing the number of operations of the device during the examination has the effect of not only shortening the examination time but also preventing medical accidents due to operation mistakes in examinations involving risks such as endoscopes.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration of an apparatus of the present invention

FIG. 2 is an internal block diagram of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a display screen during inspection of the image display device.

FIG. 4 is a data management structure of a data management unit.

FIG. 5 is a processing routine for searching for and displaying a past image that matches the current shooting conditions.

FIG. 6 is an SQL statement to a data management unit for searching an image file name with which the shooting conditions match.

FIG. 7 is a processing routine for setting a past image capturing condition to a current capturing condition.

FIG. 8 is a processing routine for capturing (capturing) an image and marking an important image.

FIG. 9 is a processing routine for storing image data

FIG. 10 is an SQL statement to a data management unit for storing inspection and image management information.

FIG. 11 is a processing routine in which a captured image under the same capturing condition as a past image is set as an important image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 inspection device 2 management device 3 network 4 signal line 5 control unit 6 control memory 7 data management unit 8 image memory 9 external storage device 10 imaging condition control unit 11 electrocardiographic analysis unit 12 image collection unit 13 display control unit 14 input control unit 15 Past image button 16 Past important image button 17 Shooting condition copy button 18 Shooting start button 19 Image interpolation button 20 Mark button 21 Inspection device control unit 22 Input device 23 Output device 24 Current image window 25 Past image window

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A medical image inspection apparatus for photographing an image for diagnosing a patient, a photographing means for photographing a diagnosis region of a patient, a photographing condition setting means for setting a photographing condition in the photographing means, and the photographing. Data management means for storing and managing the shooting conditions set by the condition setting means and the image data obtained by the shooting means in association with each other, search condition setting means for setting search conditions for images, and storage in the data management means The image forming apparatus further comprises a search unit that extracts a shooting condition that matches the search condition set by the search condition setting unit from the shooting conditions associated with the managed image data, and a display unit that displays the image data extracted by the search unit. A medical image inspection apparatus characterized by: 2. The medical image inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the search condition setting means is provided so that the image search condition is the current imaging condition of the medical image inspection apparatus. 3. The data managing means is configured to store and manage the information indicating the important image in association with the image data, and the searching means stores the information indicating the important image associated with the image data by the data managing means. The medical image inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the medical image inspection apparatus is configured to be a search condition. 4. The medical image inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said photographing condition setting means is provided so as to change the photographing condition to the photographing condition of the image searched by said searching means. 5. The data management means comprises means for comparing the photographing conditions of the image photographed by the photographing means with the photographing conditions of the image searched by the searching means, and the data managing means stores the photographing conditions of the searched image. The medical image inspection apparatus according to claim 4, wherein images taken under the same imaging conditions are provided as important images. 6. When the retrieved image is an important image, the photographing condition of the retrieved image is the same as that of the retrieved image, comprising means for comparing the photographed condition of the photographed image with the photographed condition of the retrieved image. The medical image inspection apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising means for converting an image captured under the condition into an important image. 7. The medical image inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the photographing means uses an ultrasonic wave or an endoscope.