US 12,002,216 B2
Automatic quality checks for radiotherapy contouring
Thomas Albrecht, Basel (CH); Peter Hess, Urdorf (CH); and Nawal Houhou, Nussbaumen (CH)
Assigned to SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS INTERNATIONAL AG, Steinhausen (CH)
Filed by Siemens Healthineers International AG, Steinhausen (CH)
Filed on Mar. 13, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/120,552.
Application 18/120,552 is a continuation of application No. 17/176,358, filed on Feb. 16, 2021, granted, now 11,631,182.
Application 17/176,358 is a continuation of application No. 16/252,848, filed on Jan. 21, 2019, granted, now 10,957,046, issued on Mar. 23, 2021.
Application 16/252,848 is a continuation of application No. 15/273,454, filed on Sep. 22, 2016, granted, now 10,290,093, issued on May 14, 2019.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/221,921, filed on Sep. 22, 2015.
Prior Publication US 2023/0230253 A1, Jul. 20, 2023
Int. Cl. G06K 9/00 (2022.01); G06F 16/54 (2019.01); G06N 7/01 (2023.01); G06T 7/00 (2017.01); G06T 7/12 (2017.01); G06T 7/13 (2017.01); G06T 7/143 (2017.01); G06T 7/50 (2017.01); G16H 30/20 (2018.01)
CPC G06T 7/143 (2017.01) [G06F 16/54 (2019.01); G06N 7/01 (2023.01); G06T 7/0002 (2013.01); G06T 7/001 (2013.01); G06T 7/0012 (2013.01); G06T 7/12 (2017.01); G06T 7/13 (2017.01); G06T 7/50 (2017.01); G16H 30/20 (2018.01); G06T 2207/10081 (2013.01); G06T 2207/10116 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20076 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20212 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30008 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30048 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30096 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30168 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30242 (2013.01); G06V 2201/03 (2022.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for evaluating quality of segmentation of an anatomical structure in a radiological image, comprising:
receiving a set of rules to be used to evaluate the segmented structure;
determining the rules that are appropriate to be used to evaluate the segmented structure;
selecting the appropriate rules for execution;
determining order of execution of the selected rules; and
applying the selected rules in the determined order to check the quality of the segmentation in the image,
wherein the segmentation is determined to fail quality check when one or more of the selected rules are violated,
wherein the rules include heuristic rules and statistical rules,
the heuristic rules include rules that require that the structure be inside the segmentation in an image, that the segmented structure not overlap with another structure in the image, that the segmentation in the image be a single connected contour, that a length, volume, or shape of the structure be in a predefined range, that gross tumor volume structures be completely covered by at least one planning target volume structures, and that clinical target volume structures be completely covered by at least one planning target volume structures, and
wherein Boolean operators and pixel/voxel counting or a 3D connectivity labeling process is applied to determine whether the heuristic rules are violated.