REFERENCE-LIBRARY EXTENSION DURING IMAGING OF MOVING ORGANS

摘要

Images acquired during an image-guided treatment procedure sometimes exceed the scope of a reference library previously acquired for the purpose of monitoring and/or adjusting the treatment. In this situation, the reference library may be extended dynamically and/or in real time based on the newly acquired treatment images and/or other available information.

主权项

1. A method for monitoring an anatomical region during treatment thereof, the method comprising:
(a) prior to the treatment, establishing a library of reference image records of the anatomical region, each reference image record comprising at least a reference image; (b) during the treatment, repeatedly
(i) acquiring a treatment image of the anatomical region;(ii) determining whether a reference image from the library matches the acquired treatment image according to an image-similarity criterion;(iii) if none of the reference images in the library matches the acquired treatment image according to the image-similarity criterion, extending the reference library based, at least in part, on at least one of the acquired treatment image or a previous treatment image by adding a new reference image record comprising a new reference image to the library; and (c) monitoring the anatomical region based at least in part on the acquired treatment images and the reference library.