US 11,887,308 B2
System for processing images to detect properties of skeletal muscle
Andrew Blamire, Newcastle (GB); Ian Schofield, Newcastle (GB); and Roger Whittaker, Newcastle (GB)
Assigned to UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, Newcastle (GB)
Appl. No. 17/057,767
Filed by UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, Newcastle (GB)
PCT Filed May 9, 2019, PCT No. PCT/GB2019/051271
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Nov. 23, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/229413, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 5, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 1808950 (GB), filed on May 31, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0104045 A1, Apr. 8, 2021
Int. Cl. A61B 5/055 (2006.01); G06T 7/00 (2017.01); A61B 5/00 (2006.01); G01R 33/563 (2006.01)
CPC G06T 7/0016 (2013.01) [A61B 5/055 (2013.01); A61B 5/4076 (2013.01); G01R 33/56316 (2013.01); G01R 33/56341 (2013.01); G06T 2207/10088 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30004 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. Machine readable instructions stored on a non-transitory machine readable medium, the machine readable instructions upon execution to cause processing circuitry to:
receive a time series of Magnetic Resonance, MR, images representing a slice of a body part;
analyze the time series of images to identify one or more signal voids in one or more images of the series, a signal void being a localized region of signal attenuation;
correlate the identified signal voids with candidate motor units of skeletal muscle, wherein the correlation comprises performing a comparison of at least one characteristic of the identified signal voids in the images with a control data set of MR images produced by applying a controlled stimulus to a motor nerve in control subjects to establish inherent characteristics of signal voids corresponding to motor units of skeletal muscle, the comparison to generate confirmed motor units; and
analyze properties of candidate motor units validated via the comparison as confirmed motor units and determine at least one of: a firing frequency of at least one of the confirmed motor units, a size of at least one of the confirmed motor units, a number of confirmed motor units in a given image area or a shape of at least one of the confirmed motor units.