| US 7,561,727 B2 | ||
| Method of deriving a quantitative measure of a degree of calcification of an aorta | ||
| Lars A. Conrad-Hansen, Frederiksberg (Denmark); Marleen de Bruijne, Copenhagen (Denmark); Francois Bernard Lauze, Copenhagen (Denmark); Claus Christiansen, Skodsborg (Denmark); and Mads Nielsen, Dragor (Denmark) | ||
| Assigned to Nordic Bioscience Imaging A/S, Herlev (Denmark) | ||
| Filed on Oct. 10, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/247,809. | ||
| Application 11/247809 is a continuation in part of application No. 11/144488, filed on Jun. 02, 2005, granted, now 7,463,758. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2006/0280350 A1, Dec. 14, 2006 | ||
| This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer. | ||
| Int. Cl. G06K 9/00 (2006.01); B41M 5/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 382—128 [382/274; 378/28] | 19 Claims |
| 1. A method of deriving a quantitative measure of a degree of calcification of a blood vessel by processing an image of at
least a part of the blood vessel containing said calcification, which method comprises: using a processor to perform:
taking a starting set of digital data representative of the image of the at least part of a blood vessel containing an area
of calcification, said area of calcification being set against a background area;
detecting calcifications in the blood vessel;
using an inpainting method to replace digital data in said starting set of digital data representing the calcification with
data extrapolating the background to extend over the area of calcification, and so generating an inpainted set of digital
data; and
computing the difference between the starting set of digital data and the inpainted set of digital data to obtain a result
representative of the degree of calcification of the blood vessel.
|