WO1996031835A1

WO1996031835A1 - Ultrasonic image archiving method and system

Info

Publication number: WO1996031835A1
Application number: PCT/US1996/003562
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael J. Lindeboom; Theodore F. Weiss
Original assignee: Base Ten Systems, Inc.
Priority date: 1995-04-04
Filing date: 1996-03-15
Publication date: 1996-10-10
Also published as: AU5312796A; DE19681266T1

Abstract

An image archiving method and system provides an ultrasonic image on a substrate having an image area (23) including a text image (21) in a given portion of the image area. The entire image area including the text image is digitized to produce an image file and optical character recognition (112) is performed on the text image to produce a text file. The image file is stored with the text file on a compact disk (35) for easy retrieval.

Description

ULTRASONIC IMAGE ARCHIVING METHOD AND SYSTEM

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a method

and system for image archiving, and in particular, to the archiving of ultrasonic medical images.

The use of digital computer equipment to

archive medical images is known from EP 0487110. In such

a system, medical images are acquired from an imaging

scanner and the images are stored in a permanent memory

medium.

In order to retrieve the images, the system

must store some identification data along with the image.

Existing ultrasound scanners include a

typewriter style keyboard which is used by the operator

to enter the patient's name and identification, both of

which are displayed on the image and are recorded on the

hard copy of the image formed on a substrate. Since the archiving systems also require the patient name or

identification to be entered so that the image files can be retrieved, the operator must enter the same patient

data a second time using a keyboard. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to utilize the patient name and identification textual data

which already appears in the image to avoid the need for entering this information a second time. Accordingly,

the present invention includes a processor which performs optical character recognition to capture the textual data

on the image and storing the textual data as a text file

along with the image file corresponding to the whole image.

Furthermore, ultrasound imaging machines have

the capability of making measurements of features in the

image. These measurements are generally displayed in text form by the scanner superimposed on the medical

image and in tabular form. These measurements are often

used by the scanner to calculate parameters for the

clinician. One common example is the calculation of the gestational age of a fetus from one or more measurements,

such as the biparietal diameter, abdominal circumference, femur length, head circumference or crown rump length.

Such calculated parameters are also displayed in the

image by the scanner and thus appear on the hard copy of

the image when it is formed. If a clinician desires to perform computations

on these measurements or parameters after the images are

archived, currently they must be entered manually into

the computer using a keyboard. In accordance with the

present invention, the optical character recognition (OCR) processor converts this textual image into a text

file so that there is no need to manually enter this data

into the computer.

In further accordance with the present

invention, the image file and the associated text file

are stored on a recordable compact disk (CD) . In

accordance with the present invention, when a plurality

of images having a plurality of image files and

associated text files are to be stored, these files can

be stored on a single compact disk in multiple sessions.

These and other objects and advantages of the

present invention will be seen from the following

detailed description taken with the attached drawings,

wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a scanner

apparatus according to the present invention; Fig. 2 shows an ultrasonic image formed by the

apparatus of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the apparatus for

archiving the image of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an apparatus for

retrieving text and image information from a compact

disk; and

Fig. 5 is a flow chart of the method of the

present invention carried out on the apparatus of Figs.

1-4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to Fig. 1, an ultrasound scanner

10 has a keyboard 11 connected thereto for text input and

an imager 12 for producing a hard copy as shown in Fig.

2, which is for example, a photograph 20 including an

ultrasonic image 23.

The keyboard 11 is used to enter the patient

name and identification information which is displayed by

the imager 12 in a given portion, area or zone 21 of the

image area 23. The patient name and identification is a

textual image which is superimposed on the ultrasound

image as shown in Fig. 2. The scanner 20 also has the capability of

including textual data in area 21 corresponding to image

measurements, such as biparietal diameter, abdominal

circumference, femur length, head circumference and crown

rump length.

The image 20 is archived in the apparatus shown

in Fig. 3. An image scanner 31 scans the total image 23

of the substrate 20 including the text area 21. An image

processor 32 takes the digital data from the image

scanner and forms an image file, whereas the OCR

processor 33 takes the digital data from the text zone 21

and converts into a text file including the text that was

in image form in zone 21.

Data processor 34 takes the image and text

files from the image processor 32 and OCR processor 33

and associates the two and stores these files on a

compact disk by means of a recordable CD (CD-R) drive 35.

The data processor 34 and CD-R drive 35 have

the capability of multi-session recordings so that when a

plurality of images are scanned by scanner 31 at

different times, each scanning session can be recorded on

a single compact disk until the disk is full.

The images can be retrieved from the compact disk in the apparatus shown in Fig. 4 which includes a

compact disk drive 41 which reads the compact disk under

the control of the data retrieval processor 42. The

processor 42 receives the search criteria, such as the patient information and identification data via a

keyboard 44 and the image file on the CD ROM and CD ROM

drive 41 is displayed on the monitor 43 along with the

text from the text file.

It is to be understood that the apparatus shown

in Figs. 1, 3 and 4 can be in separate locations or can

be all part of a single system where each of the

processors 32-34 and 42 are implemented by a single computer microprocessor.

Fig. 5 shows the method of using the apparatus

of Figs. 1-4 in accordance with the invention.

As shown therein, the patient identification

information is entered on the keyboard 11 in step 100 and

an image of the patient is acquired in step 101. The

patient identification information and image information is displayed in the image in the text zone 21 at step

102.

The image created by the ultrasound equipment

is then scanned by image scanner 31 for digitizing in step 110. The digitized image is obtained in step 111

and OCR is performed on the text zone in step 112. The digitized image from the image processor 32 and the text,

which has been read from the text zone by OCR processor 33, is stored on a compact disk in step 113.

Thereafter, the image file is retrieved in step

120 by searching patient identification text files on the

compact disk. The image information text that was stored

with the image is then used to evaluate the image i.n step 121.

It should be understood that steps 100-102,

steps 110-113 and steps 120-121 can be performed at

different times, or different locations or can be

performed successively in one location.

It is understood that the embodiments described

hereinabove are merely illustrative and are not intended

to limit the scope of the invention. It is realized that various changes, alterations, rearrangements and

modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without substantially departing from the spirit and scope

of the present invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. An image archiving method comprising the steps of:

providing an ultrasonic image on a substrate having an image area including a text image in a given portion of the image area;

digitizing the entire image area including the text image to produce an image file;

performing optical character recognition on the text image to produce a text file; and

storing the image file with the text file on a compact disk.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising

retrieving the image file by searching the text file.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of

providing the image comprises acquiring an ultrasonic

image of a patient and displaying textual patient

identification information in the given portion of the

image area.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of providing the image comprises acquiring an ultrasonic

image of a patient and displaying textual image

information in the given portion of the image area.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of

storing comprises storing a plurality of image and text

files corresponding to a plurality of ultrasonic images on one compact disk in multiple sessions.

6. An image archiving system comprising:

a scanner receptive of an ultrasonic image on a

substrate having an image area including a text image in a given portion of the image area for producing digital

data corresponding thereto;

an image processor receptive of the digital

data for producing an image file corresponding to the

entire image area; an optical character recognition processor

receptive of the digital data for producing a text file

corresponding to the text image; and

a data processor including a disk drive for

storing the image file with the text file on a compact

disk.

7. The system according to claim 6, further comprising

a data retrieval processor for retrieving the image file

by searching the text file on the disk.

8. The system according to claim 6, further comprising

means for acquiring an ultrasonic image of a patient and

means for displaying textual patient identification

information in the given portion of the image area.

9. The system according to claim 6, further comprising

means for acquiring an ultrasonic image of a patient and means for displaying textual image information in the

given portion of the image area.

10. The system according to claim 6, wherein the data

processor stores a plurality of image and text files

corresponding to a plurality of ultrasonic images on one

compact disk in multiple sessions.