US 12,033,322 B2
Systems and methods for image cropping and anatomical structure segmentation in medical imaging
Hannu Laaksonen, Espoo (FI); Janne Nord, Espoo (FI); and Jan Schreier, Helsinki (FI)
Assigned to SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS INTERNATIONAL AG, Steinhausen (CH)
Filed by Siemens Healthineers International AG, Steinhausen (CH)
Filed on Dec. 21, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/557,725.
Application 17/557,725 is a continuation of application No. 16/554,742, filed on Aug. 29, 2019, granted, now 11,238,580.
Prior Publication US 2022/0114727 A1, Apr. 14, 2022
Int. Cl. G06T 7/11 (2017.01); G06N 3/08 (2023.01); G06T 7/00 (2017.01); G06V 10/25 (2022.01); G06V 10/82 (2022.01); A61N 5/10 (2006.01); G06T 7/174 (2017.01); G06V 10/44 (2022.01)
CPC G06T 7/0012 (2013.01) [G06N 3/08 (2013.01); G06T 7/11 (2017.01); G06V 10/25 (2022.01); G06V 10/82 (2022.01); A61N 5/1047 (2013.01); G06T 7/174 (2017.01); G06T 2207/10072 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20081 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20084 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20221 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30096 (2013.01); G06V 10/454 (2022.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of generating a contour of an anatomical structure on a data set of medical images, comprising:
processing the data set of medical images to obtain a data set of cropped medical images;
processing the data set of cropped medical images by a plurality of trained segmentation neural network models working separately or in unison to obtain respective contour data outputs, each of the trained segmentation neural network models having been trained to approximate the contour of the anatomical structure; and
combining the obtained contour data outputs to obtain a singular output of contour data,
wherein the processing of the data set of medical images includes:
processing the medical images using one or more trained neural network models to generate corresponding crop data outputs, the neural network models having been trained to approximate a cut-off plane with respect to the anatomical structure; and
cropping the medical images based on the generated crop data outputs,
the method further comprising:
generating a contour using the singular output of contour data; and
modifying the generated contour to have a substantially straight edge by applying an algorithm that enforces straight cut-offs.