DETAILED ACTION
Notice of AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the AIA the first inventor to file provisions.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments see remarks, filed 11/26/2025, with respect to the 103 art rejections for claim 1 have been fully considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the current combinations of references being used in the current rejection.
The applicant argues on page 11, “Further, Applicant respectfully submits that the teachings of the '567 and '933 applications appear to be technically incompatible, and directed towards technically different, incompatible methods. The ‘567 application is directed to measuring and restricting pixel intensities,3 while the '933 application is directed to determining an intersect of two different lesions. Thus, Applicant respectfully submits that one of ordinary skill in the art would consider the '933 method to be technically incompatible with the 567 method and not seek to combine any of the teachings of the two references.”
In response the office does not find this argument to be persuasive. It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) with the teachings of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) for the reasons given below.
Smith discloses a medical image processing apparatus, comprising processing circuitry configured to (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0063]- Smith discloses deriving the vascular tumor burden or deriving the necrotic tumor burden—each may be accomplished within computing system 100 by one or more hardware processors 108 and/or by a data processing module 114 and may be derived in any manner or analogous manner previously described above for defining and/or determining the VTB.):
receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0051]- Smith discloses the radiologic device comprises any device that generates one or more cross-sectional images obtained by at least one of: x-ray computed tomography, computed tomography perfusion (CTP) imaging, positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Consequently, in some embodiments, the one or more cross-sectional images comprise: CT images, CTP images, CAT scan images, PET images, SPECT images, or MRI images. Further in Fig. 1, Paragraph [0052]- Smith discloses the computing system 100 determines which tumor response criteria to use based on one or more data within the one or more cross-sectional images 102 such as, for example, the anatomical location represented in the one or more cross-sectional images 102 or by the presence or absence of injected radiocontrast in the one or more cross-sectional images 102.);
Smith fails to explicitly teach perform a first masking process to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region, in-paint one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
However, Wang explicitly teaches perform a first masking process to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region (Fig. 6, Paragraph [0134]- Wang discloses by pre-processing the input to the ML/DL computer model with a liver mask 614, the processing by the ML/DL computer model may be focused on the portions of the input slices that correspond to the anatomical structure of interest and not on the “noise” in the input images. The others of the ML/DL computer models, e.g., ML/DL computer model 630, receives the input volume 105 directly without liver masking using the liver mask 614 generated by the first ML/DL computer model 610.);
in-paint one or more parts of the anatomical region (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0156]- Wang discloses the mechanism focuses on one lesion and performs “inpainting” on lesion voxels and non-liver tissues in the vicinity of the lesion under focus.),
the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0156]- Wang discloses the mechanism focuses on one lesion and performs “inpainting” on lesion voxels and non-liver tissues in the vicinity of the lesion under focus. (Wherein the lesion is the region of interest and the non-liver tissue is the area outside the region of interest).), Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith of a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang perform a first masking process to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region, in-paint one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein perform a first masking process to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region, in-paint one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 5-6, 8-11, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, and Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning.
Regarding claim 1, Smith discloses a medical image processing apparatus, comprising processing circuitry configured to (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0063]- Smith discloses deriving the vascular tumor burden or deriving the necrotic tumor burden—each may be accomplished within computing system 100 by one or more hardware processors 108 and/or by a data processing module 114 and may be derived in any manner or analogous manner previously described above for defining and/or determining the VTB.):
receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0051]- Smith discloses the radiologic device comprises any device that generates one or more cross-sectional images obtained by at least one of: x-ray computed tomography, computed tomography perfusion (CTP) imaging, positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Consequently, in some embodiments, the one or more cross-sectional images comprise: CT images, CTP images, CAT scan images, PET images, SPECT images, or MRI images. Further in Fig. 1, Paragraph [0052]- Smith discloses the computing system 100 determines which tumor response criteria to use based on one or more data within the one or more cross-sectional images 102 such as, for example, the anatomical location represented in the one or more cross-sectional images 102 or by the presence or absence of injected radiocontrast in the one or more cross-sectional images 102.);
Smith fails to explicitly teach perform a first masking process to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region, in-paint one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
However, Wang explicitly teaches perform a first masking process to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region (Fig. 6, Paragraph [0134]- Wang discloses by pre-processing the input to the ML/DL computer model with a liver mask 614, the processing by the ML/DL computer model may be focused on the portions of the input slices that correspond to the anatomical structure of interest and not on the “noise” in the input images. The others of the ML/DL computer models, e.g., ML/DL computer model 630, receives the input volume 105 directly without liver masking using the liver mask 614 generated by the first ML/DL computer model 610.);
in-paint one or more parts of the anatomical region (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0156]- Wang discloses the mechanism focuses on one lesion and performs “inpainting” on lesion voxels and non-liver tissues in the vicinity of the lesion under focus.),
the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0156]- Wang discloses the mechanism focuses on one lesion and performs “inpainting” on lesion voxels and non-liver tissues in the vicinity of the lesion under focus. (Wherein the lesion is the region of interest and the non-liver tissue is the area outside the region of interest).), Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith of a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang perform a first masking process to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region, in-paint one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein perform a first masking process to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region, in-paint one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach and the one or more parts comprising an increased perfusion signal relative to one or more other parts of the anatomical region.
However, a new prior art Lin explicitly teaches and the one or more parts comprising an increased perfusion signal relative to one or more other parts of the anatomical region (Fig. 1, Column 7 Lines [0037-43]- Lin discloses in a perfusion calculation step 146, perfusion value and time-to-peak 128 values are calculated for each voxel. The process is repeated 148 until all of the voxels have been analyzed. In an interpolation step 150, the pixels that failed the gamma fit are assigned a perfusion value by interpolating perfusion values of nearby voxels.);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Lin and the one or more parts comprising an increased perfusion signal relative to one or more other parts of the anatomical region.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein and the one or more parts comprising an increased perfusion signal relative to one or more other parts of the anatomical region.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more higher quality of results, since both Smith and Lin are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Lin’s system provides an increase in quality. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1), Column 1 paragraph Lines [56-60].
Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach and perform low-pass filtering to remove an artifact due to at least a region located outside the region of interest to generate filtered CT perfusion image data.
However, a new prior art Stehning explicitly teaches and perform low-pass filtering to remove an artifact due to at least a region located outside the region of interest to generate filtered CT perfusion image data (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0076]- Stehning discloses the contract inversion makes all of the dark areas which would be air pockets, noise from areas outside of the subject and also bone tissue would become very light instead of dark. Further in fig. 1, Paragraph [0078]- Stehning discloses pre-processing of the acquired in-phase images (TE2), e.g. image smoothing, contrast inversion etc.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang and Lin of a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Stehning and perform low-pass filtering to remove an artifact due to at least a region located outside the region of interest to generate filtered CT perfusion image data.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein and perform low-pass filtering to remove an artifact due to at least a region located outside the region of interest to generate filtered CT perfusion image data.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for a more accurate medical image, since both Smith and Stehning are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Stehning’s system provides an further increase in image accuracy. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1), Paragraph [0030].
Regarding claim 5, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith fails to explicitly teach wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine the one or more parts of the anatomical region prior to in-painting the one or more parts of the anatomical region.
However, Wang explicitly teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine the one or more parts of the anatomical region prior to in-painting the one or more parts of the anatomical region (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0056]- Wang discloses the anatomical structure of interest detection stage (hereafter referred to as the liver detection stage in accordance with the example embodiment), comprises a machine learning (ML)/deep learning (DL) computer model that is specifically trained and configured to perform computerized medical image analysis to identify portions of input medical images that correspond to the anatomical structure of interest, e.g., a liver (Wherein fig. 1 shows body part detection logic #112 as the first step and inpainting as a later step in Lesion segment logic #140)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine the one or more parts of the anatomical region prior to in-painting the one or more parts of the anatomical region.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to determine the one or more parts of the anatomical region prior to in-painting the one or more parts of the anatomical region.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Regarding claim 6, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith fails to explicitly teach wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region based on one or more pixels surrounding or neighbouring the one or more parts of the anatomical region.
However, Wang explicitly teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region based on one or more pixels surrounding or neighbouring the one or more parts of the anatomical region (Fig. 16, Paragraph [0204]- Wang discloses after calculating this contrast and variance prior to in-painting, the in-painting may be performed with respect to the selected lesion 1611 such that pixels associated with other lesion contours, e.g., 1612, and areas of the anatomical structure representing healthy tissues in the image, are in-painted with an average pixel intensity value of the healthy tissue.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region based on one or more pixels surrounding or neighbouring the one or more parts of the anatomical region.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region based on one or more pixels surrounding or neighbouring the one or more parts of the anatomical region.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Regarding claim 8, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith fails to explicitly teach the processing circuitry is further configured to perform a second masking process to mask the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest.
However, Wang explicitly teaches the processing circuitry is further configured to perform a second masking process to mask the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest (Fig. 6, Paragraph [0134]- Wang discloses by pre-processing the input to the ML/DL computer model with a liver mask 614, the processing by the ML/DL computer model may be focused on the portions of the input slices that correspond to the anatomical structure of interest and not on the “noise” in the input images. The others of the ML/DL computer models, e.g., ML/DL computer model 630, receives the input volume 105 directly without liver masking using the liver mask 614 generated by the first ML/DL computer model 610.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang the processing circuitry is further configured to perform a second masking process to mask the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform a second masking process to mask the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Regarding claim 9, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 8, Smith fails to explicitly teach wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the masked one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest.
However, Wang explicitly teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the masked one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest (Fig. 6, Paragraph [0139]- Wang discloses the second ML/DL computer model 620 receives a pre-processed input of 3 slices from the input volume, which have been pre-processed with the liver mask 614 generated by the first ML/DL computer model 610 to identify the portion of the 3 slices that corresponds to the liver mask 614.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the masked one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the masked one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Regarding claim 10, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith further teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive further CT image data that is representative of the anatomical region the patient or other subject (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0105]- Smith discloses computing system 100 may be pre-programmed to accept one or more cross-sectional images 102 from a particular radiologic device 104 such as, for example, CT images from a CT scanner, or computing system 100 may identify this information through data processing module 114, which reads one or more meta data tags associated with images 102 and which identify they type of image (e.g., a CT image, an MRI image, a PET image, a SPECT image, a CTP image, etc.) and the presence or absence of injected radiocontrast.).
Regarding claim 11, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus of claim 10, Although, Smith teaches the CT perfusion image data and the further CT image data (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0105]- Smith discloses computing system 100 may be pre-programmed to accept one or more cross-sectional images 102 from a particular radiologic device 104 such as, for example, CT images from a CT scanner, or computing system 100 may identify this information through data processing module 114, which reads one or more meta data tags associated with images 102 and which identify they type of image (e.g., a CT image, an MRI image, a PET image, a SPECT image, a CTP image, etc.) and the presence or absence of injected radiocontrast.). Smith fails to explicitly teach the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the first masking process to mask the region of interest and/or a second masking process to mask the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest based on the CT perfusion image data and the further CT image data
However, Wang explicitly teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the first masking process to mask the region of interest and/or a second masking process to mask the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest based on the CT perfusion image data and the further CT image data (Fig. 6, Paragraph [0134]- Wang discloses by pre-processing the input to the ML/DL computer model with a liver mask 614, the processing by the ML/DL computer model may be focused on the portions of the input slices that correspond to the anatomical structure of interest and not on the “noise” in the input images. The others of the ML/DL computer models, e.g., ML/DL computer model 630, receives the input volume 105 directly without liver masking using the liver mask 614 generated by the first ML/DL computer model 610.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the first masking process to mask the region of interest and/or a second masking process to mask the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest based on the CT perfusion image data and the further CT image data.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the first masking process to mask the region of interest and/or a second masking process to mask the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside and/or inside of the region of interest based on the CT perfusion image data and the further CT image data.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Regarding claim 18, Smith teaches a medical image processing method (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0024]- Smith discloses embodiments specifically disclosed within one section may also relate to and/or serve as additional and/or alternative embodiments in another section having the same and/or similar systems, modules, devices, methods, and/or terminology.),
comprising: receiving computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0051]- Smith discloses the radiologic device comprises any device that generates one or more cross-sectional images obtained by at least one of: x-ray computed tomography, computed tomography perfusion (CTP) imaging, positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Consequently, in some embodiments, the one or more cross-sectional images comprise: CT images, CTP images, CAT scan images, PET images, SPECT images, or MRI images. Further in Fig. 1, Paragraph [0052]- Smith discloses the computing system 100 determines which tumor response criteria to use based on one or more data within the one or more cross-sectional images 102 such as, for example, the anatomical location represented in the one or more cross-sectional images 102 or by the presence or absence of injected radiocontrast in the one or more cross-sectional images 102.);
Smith fails to explicitly teach performing a first masking to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region; in-painting of the one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
However, Wang explicitly teaches performing a first masking to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region (Fig. 6, Paragraph [0134]- Wang discloses by pre-processing the input to the ML/DL computer model with a liver mask 614, the processing by the ML/DL computer model may be focused on the portions of the input slices that correspond to the anatomical structure of interest and not on the “noise” in the input images. The others of the ML/DL computer models, e.g., ML/DL computer model 630, receives the input volume 105 directly without liver masking using the liver mask 614 generated by the first ML/DL computer model 610.);
in-painting of the one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0156]- Wang discloses the mechanism focuses on one lesion and performs “inpainting” on lesion voxels and non-liver tissues in the vicinity of the lesion under focus. (Wherein the lesion is the region of interest and the non-liver tissue is the area outside the region of interest).),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith of a medical image processing method, comprising: receiving computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang performing a first masking to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region; in-painting of the one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein performing a first masking to mask a region of interest of the anatomical region; in-painting of the one or more parts of the anatomical region, the one or more parts being located inside and/or outside of the region of interest.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach and the one or more parts comprising an increased perfusion signal relative to one or more other parts of the anatomical region.
However, Lin explicitly teaches and the one or more parts comprising an increased perfusion signal relative to one or more other parts of the anatomical region (Fig. 1, Column 7 Lines [0037-43]- Lin discloses in a perfusion calculation step 146, perfusion value and time-to-peak 128 values are calculated for each voxel. The process is repeated 148 until all of the voxels have been analyzed. In an interpolation step 150, the pixels that failed the gamma fit are assigned a perfusion value by interpolating perfusion values of nearby voxels.); and
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang a medical image processing method, comprising: receiving computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Lin and the one or more parts comprising an increased perfusion signal relative to one or more other parts of the anatomical region.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein and the one or more parts comprising an increased perfusion signal relative to one or more other parts of the anatomical region.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more higher quality of results, since both Smith and Lin are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Lin’s system provides an increase in quality. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1), Column 1 paragraph Lines [56-60].
Smith in view of Wang and Lin fails to explicitly teach performing low-pass filtering to remove an artifact due to at least a region located outside the region of interest, to generate filtered CT perfusion image data.
However, Stehning explicitly teaches performing low-pass filtering to remove an artifact due to at least a region located outside the region of interest, to generate filtered CT perfusion image data (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0076]- Stehning discloses the contract inversion makes all of the dark areas which would be air pockets, noise from areas outside of the subject and also bone tissue would become very light instead of dark. Further in fig. 1, Paragraph [0078]- Stehning discloses pre-processing of the acquired in-phase images (TE2), e.g. image smoothing, contrast inversion etc.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang and Lin of a medical image processing method, comprising: receiving computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Stehning performing low-pass filtering to remove an artifact due to at least a region located outside the region of interest, to generate filtered CT perfusion image data.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein performing low-pass filtering to remove an artifact due to at least a region located outside the region of interest, to generate filtered CT perfusion image data.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for a more accurate medical image, since both Smith and Stehning are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Stehning’s system provides an further increase in image accuracy. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1), Paragraph [0030].
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning, and Van Rikxoort et al. (US 20210059624 A1) hereafter referenced as Van Rikxoort.
Regarding claim 2, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach wherein the CT perfusion image data received by the processing circuitry comprises perfusion image data obtained from a CT subtraction method or a dual-energy CT method.
However, Van Rikxoort explicitly teaches wherein the CT perfusion image data received by the processing circuitry comprises perfusion image data obtained from a CT subtraction method (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0028]- Van Rikxoort discloses the perfusion information is typically provided by an image modality like lung perfusion scintigraphy, Single Photon Computed Tomography (SPECT), dual-energy perfusion CT, contrast CT subtraction imaging, or perfusion based on multi temporal CT imaging. As output, these modalities often provide single perfusion values or 2D/3D/4D images with spatially located perfusion values.)
or a dual-energy CT method (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0028]- Van Rikxoort discloses the perfusion information is typically provided by an image modality like lung perfusion scintigraphy, Single Photon Computed Tomography (SPECT), dual-energy perfusion CT, contrast CT subtraction imaging, or perfusion based on multi temporal CT imaging. As output, these modalities often provide single perfusion values or 2D/3D/4D images with spatially located perfusion values.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Van Rikxoort wherein the CT perfusion image data received by the processing circuitry comprises perfusion image data obtained from a CT subtraction method or a dual-energy CT method.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the CT perfusion image data received by the processing circuitry comprises perfusion image data obtained from a CT subtraction method or a dual-energy CT method.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for a better image to be created, since both Smith and Van Rikxoort are both systems for medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Van Rikxoort’s system provides an improvement to spatial relation. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Van Rikxoort’s et al. (US 20210059624 A1), Paragraph [0022-23].
Claims 3-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning, and Beck et al. (US 20200312030 A1) hereafter referenced as Beck.
Regarding claim 3, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith in view of Wang is silent to teach wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region and perform the low-pass filtering sequentially.
However, Beck explicitly teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region and perform the low-pass filtering sequentially (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0071]- Beck discloses multiple operations (e.g., a “morphological close” operation, inpainting, median filter, mean filter, and Gaussian blur) may be performed multiple times in series or parallel to eliminate all artifacts from the clean version of the AR workspace image.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Beck wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region and perform the low-pass filtering sequentially.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region and perform the low-pass filtering sequentially.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for a better image to be created, since both Smith and Beck are both systems for image processing that cleans the image. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Beck’s system provides an improvement to artifact removal. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Beck’s et al. (US 20200312030 A1), Paragraph [0071-72].
Regarding claim 4, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region and perform the low-pass filtering of simultaneously.
However, Beck explicitly teaches wherein the processing circuitry is configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region and perform the low-pass filtering of at least the region of interest simultaneously (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0071]- Beck discloses multiple operations (e.g., a “morphological close” operation, inpainting, median filter, mean filter, and Gaussian blur) may be performed multiple times in series or parallel to eliminate all artifacts from the clean version of the AR workspace image.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Beck wherein the processing circuitry is configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region and perform the low-pass filtering of at least the region of interest simultaneously.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is configured to in-paint the one or more parts of the anatomical region and perform the low-pass filtering of at least the region of interest simultaneously.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for a better image to be created, since both Smith and Beck are both systems for image processing that cleans the image. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Beck’s system provides an improvement to artifact removal. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Beck’s et al. (US 20200312030 A1), Paragraph [0071-72].
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning, and Bruder et al. (US 20110052030 A1) hereafter referenced as Bruder.
Regarding claim 12, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the low-pass filtering using a three-dimensional Gaussian filter function.
However, Bruder explicitly teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the low-pass filtering using a three-dimensional Gaussian filter function (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0056]- Bruder discloses this can be effected by convolution with a three-dimensional low pass T, such as e.g. a Gaussian filter.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Bruder wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the low-pass filtering using a three-dimensional Gaussian filter function.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the low-pass filtering using a three-dimensional Gaussian filter function.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for greater noise reduction in the image, since both Smith and Bruder are both systems for medical image processing that cleans the image. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Bruder’s system provides an reduction to noise in the image. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Bruder’s et al. (US 20110052030 A1), Paragraph [0086].
Claims 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning, and Rundo et al. (US 20200184648 A1) hereafter referenced as Rundo.
Regarding claim 13, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach wherein the region of interest comprises lung parenchyma of the patient or other subject.
However, Rundo explicitly teaches wherein the region of interest comprises lung parenchyma of the patient or other subject (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0081]- Rundo discloses a slice image S in the set of slice images retrieved at 120, as exemplified in FIG. 1, may comprise an indication, e.g., provided by a physician such as an oncologist, of an area or region of interest A, e.g., in the lungs parenchyma, comprising a lung lesion L.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Rundo wherein the region of interest comprises lung parenchyma of the patient or other subject.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the region of interest comprises lung parenchyma of the patient or other subject.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for greater efficiency in processing the image, since both Smith and Rundo are both systems for medical image processing of lungs. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Rundo’s system provides an accuracy increase. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Rundo’s et al. (US 20200184648 A1), Paragraph [0173].
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning, Rundo et al. (US 20200184648 A1) hereafter referenced as Rundo, and Ping et al. (CN 113506250 A) hereafter referenced as Ping.
Regarding claim 14, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, Stehning, and Rundo teaches the apparatus according to claim 13, Smith in view of Wang and Rundo fail to explicitly teach wherein the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located inside the region of interest comprise one or more vessels of the lung parenchyma.
However, Ping explicitly teaches wherein the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located inside the region of interest comprise one or more vessels of the lung parenchyma (Fig. 1 paragraph Page 9: [0002]- Ping discloses the pulmonary blood vessel can be divided into pulmonary artery blood vessel and pulmonary vein blood vessel, further, according to the position difference of pulmonary blood vessel, can also be divided into the intrapulmonary blood vessel that is located in the lung parenchyma.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, Stehning, and Rundo a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Ping wherein the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located inside the region of interest comprise one or more vessels of the lung parenchyma.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located inside the region of interest comprise one or more vessels of the lung parenchyma.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow greater efficiency in processing the image, since both Smith and Ping are both systems for medical image processing of the lung area. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Ping’s system provides an segmentation accuracy increase. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Ping’s et al. (CN 113506250 A), Page 13: Paragraph [0004].
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning, and Ping et al. (CN 113506250 A, English translation) hereafter referenced as Ping.
Regarding claim 15, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach wherein the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside the region of interest comprise one or more vessels of a lung and/or a heart of the patient or other subject.
However, Ping explicitly teaches wherein the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside the region of interest comprise one or more vessels of a lung and/or a heart of the patient or other subject (Fig. 2 Page 9: paragraph [0008]- Ping discloses further, a voxel overlapping with the lung parenchyma binary image in the circumscribed cube of the mediastinum may be set to be black (i.e., the overlapped voxel is used as a background), the gray scale of the remaining voxels is retained, the obtained image is the mediastinum image, since the mediastinum image is extracted from the CTPA image, the mediastinum image is also a three-dimensional image, and a cross section of the mediastinum image may be as shown in (b) of fig. 2. Further in Fig. 2 Page 8: Paragraph [0019]- Ping discloses determining the pulmonary aortic vessel assembly in the plurality of communicating assemblies according to the position coordinates of the mediastinum image and the gray value and the position coordinates of each communicating assembly.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Ping wherein the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside the region of interest comprise one or more vessels of a lung and/or a heart of the patient or other subject.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the one or more parts of the anatomical region that are located outside the region of interest comprise one or more vessels of a lung and/or a heart of the patient or other subject.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for greater image accuracy, since both Smith and Ping are both systems for medical image processing of the lung area. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Ping’s system provides an segmentation accuracy increase. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Ping’s et al. (CN 113506250 A), Page 13: Paragraph [0004].
Claims 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning, and Sawant et al. (US 20200330795 A1) hereafter referenced as Sawant.
Regarding claim 16, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, Smith in view of Wang is silent to explicitly teach wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate a two-dimensional image based on the filtered CT perfusion image data.
However, Sawant explicitly teaches wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate a two-dimensional image based on the filtered CT perfusion image data (Fig. 1B, Paragraph [0057]- Sawant discloses FIG. 1B is a block diagram that illustrates scan elements in a 2D scan 110, such as one scanned image slice of the volume 124 from the imaging system 121, such as a CT scanner. Further in Fig. 3b paragraph [0068]- Sawant discloses FIG. 3D is an image that illustrates an example of CT images of the 4DCT of FIG. 3C at the different phases of the breathing cycle from one of the imaging systems 121, such as a 4DCT-based ventilation/perfusion imaging system or a SPECT-based ventilation/perfusion system or an MRI-based ventilation/perfusion system.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Sawant wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate a two-dimensional image based on the filtered CT perfusion image data.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate a two-dimensional image based on the filtered CT perfusion image data.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for better image quality, since both Smith and Sawant are both systems for medical image processing with CT perfusion data. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Sawant’s system an improvement to visualization of data. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Sawant’s et al. (US 20200330795 A1), Paragraph [0119].
Regarding claim 17 Smith in view of Wang, Lin, Stehning, and Sawant teaches the apparatus according to claim 16,
Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach teaches wherein the two-dimensional image comprises a ventilation-perfusion image.
However, Sawant explicitly teaches wherein the two-dimensional image comprises a ventilation-perfusion image (Fig. 1B, Paragraph [0057]- Sawant discloses FIG. 1B is a block diagram that illustrates scan elements in a 2D scan 110, such as one scanned image slice of the volume 124 from the imaging system 121, such as a CT scanner. Further in Fig. 3D, Paragraph [0052]- Sawant discloses FIG. 3D is an image that illustrates an example of CT images of the 4DCT of FIG. 3C at the different phases of the breathing cycle from one of the imaging systems 121, such as a 4DCT-based ventilation/perfusion imaging system or a SPECT-based ventilation/perfusion system or an MRI-based ventilation/perfusion system.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Sawant wherein the two-dimensional image comprises a ventilation-perfusion image.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein the two-dimensional image comprises a ventilation-perfusion image.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for better image quality, since both Smith and Sawant are both systems for medical image processing with CT perfusion data. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Sawant’s system an improvement to visualization of data. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Sawant’s et al. (US 20200330795 A1), Paragraph [0119].
Claims 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1) hereafter referenced as Smith in view of Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1) hereafter referenced as Wang, Lin et al. (US 6745066 B1) hereafter referenced as Lin, Stehning et al. (US 20160054416 A1) hereafter referenced as Stehning, and Baier-Lowenstein et al. (US 20150216443 A1) hereafter referenced as Baier-Lowenstein.
Regarding claim 19, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning teaches a medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1,
Smith further teaches a method of detecting a defect or an abnormality in an anatomical structure or an organ of the patient or other subject, the method comprising (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0008]- Smith discloses implementations of the present invention comprise computer-implemented methods and systems and computer programmable products configured to determine an objective tumor response to an anti-cancer therapy using one or more cross-sectional images. In particular, this may comprise receiving one or more cross-sectional images that comprise one or more cross-sectional slices of digital medical image data from a radiologic device and identifying one or more target lesions within the one or more cross-sectional images.):
receiving filtered CT perfusion image data that is representative of the anatomical structure or the organ of the patient or the other subject (Fig. 2, Paragraph [0095]- Smith discloses a smoothing algorithm is applied to the digital medical image data. Moreover in some embodiments, the smoothing algorithm may be Gaussian, additive smoothing, butterworth filter, digital filter, kalman filter, kernel smoother, laplacian smoothing, stretched grid method, low-pass filter, local regression, smoothing spline, moving average, or exponential smoothing. In some embodiments, the smoothing algorithm comprises a Gaussian smoothing algorithm.)
from the medical image processing apparatus according to claim 1 (Smith in view of Wang teaches);
Smith fails to explicitly teach detecting the defect or the abnormality in the anatomical structure or the organ using at least one of: a trained machine learning model.
However, Wang explicitly teaches detecting the defect or abnormality in the anatomical structure or organ using at least one of: a trained machine learning model (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0063]- Wang discloses a first ML/DL computer model is configured with two loss functions. The first loss function penalizes errors in false negatives, i.e. classifications falsely indicating that there are no lesions present (normal anatomical structure). The second loss function penalizes errors in false positive results, i.e. classifications falsely indicating that there are lesions present (abnormal anatomical structure));
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Wang detecting the defect or abnormality in the anatomical structure or organ using at least one of: a trained machine learning model
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein detecting the defect or abnormality in the anatomical structure or organ using at least one of: a trained machine learning model.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accurate final images to be obtained, since both Smith and Wang are both systems medical image processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Wang’s system provides an increase in efficiency. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Wang et al. (US 20220138933 A1), Paragraph [0240].
Smith in view of Wang fails to explicitly teach image processing circuitry configured to detect one or more parts of the anatomical structure or the organ that exhibit perfusion below a threshold that is associated with a predetermined level of perfusion.
However, Baier-Lowenstein explicitly teaches image processing circuitry configured to detect one or more parts of the anatomical structure or the organ that exhibit perfusion below a threshold that is associated with a predetermined level of perfusion (Fig. 1, Paragraph [0063]- Baier-Lowenstein discloses the control and analysis unit is further set up to identify lung areas in which the determined ventilation is above a preset threshold value and the determined perfusion is below another, preset threshold value as dead spaces and to display these in the shown tomogram of the lung.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to combine the teachings of Smith in view of Wang, Lin, and Stehning a medical image processing apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: receive computed tomography (CT) perfusion image data that is representative of an anatomical region of a patient or other subject with the teachings of Baier-Lowenstein image processing circuitry configured to detect one or more parts of the anatomical structure or the organ that exhibit perfusion below a threshold that is associated with a predetermined level of perfusion.
Wherein having Smith’s system for medical image processing wherein image processing circuitry configured to detect one or more parts of the anatomical structure or the organ that exhibit perfusion below a threshold that is associated with a predetermined level of perfusion.
The motivation behind the modification would have been to allow for more accuracy of blood perfusion estimates, since both Smith and Baier-Lowenstein are both systems medical data processing. Wherein Smith’s system wherein increased the accuracy, while Baier-Lowenstein’s system provides an increase in perfusion identification accuracy. Please see Smith et al. (US 20180042567 A1), Paragraph [0128] and Baier-Lowenstein’s et al. (US 20150216443 A1), Paragraph [0030].
Regarding claim 20, Smith in view of Wang, Lin, Stehning, and Baier-Lowenstein teaches the method of claim 19, Smith further teaches wherein the image processing circuitry is further configured to detect one or more objects or regions in the filtered CT perfusion image data that are formed from two or more connected pixels (Fig. 1, Abstract: Smith discloses identifying a set of pixels within the cross-sectional image corresponding to a target lesion. Further Paragraph [0058]- Smith discloses wherein deriving the necrotic tumor burden comprises determining an area or volume of pixels within the second restricted range of pixel intensities.).
Conclusion
Listed below are the prior arts made of record and not relied upon but are considered
pertinent to applicant`s disclosure.
Kachelriess et al. (US 20130039556 A1)- A method is disclosed for reducing metal artifacts in CT image datasets. An embodiment of the method includes reconstructing a first CT image dataset with and a second CT image dataset without metal artifact correction, weighted summation of a high-pass-filtered first and a high-pass-filtered second CT image dataset plus a low-pass-filtered second CT image dataset, wherein the weightings are dependent on the proximity to metal in the CT image datasets. A computing unit, a CT system and a C-arm system designed to execute the method are also disclosed..................Please see Fig. 1. Abstract.
Huang et al. (US 11074674 B2)- A system for reducing noise in a camera image is disclosed. The system includes one or more processors, and a camera operatively coupled to the processor, the processors are configured to reduce noise of camera images, the processors are configured to receive input image data from the camera representing pixel data from a plurality of pixels, segment the input image data to a plurality of segments and for each segment establish an initial segment image, pre-correct pixel data by modifying the pixel data to account for voltage offset and gain of each pixel based on a predetermined map of gain and offset, and obtain an estimate of an output image by minimizing a cost function and output and stitch the estimated image to other estimated and outputted image segments, and output a noise reduced image including the stitched estimated images....................Please see Fig. 1. Abstract.
Udupa et al. (US 20230050512 A1)- A method of analyzing thoracic insufficiency syndrome (TIS) in a subject by performing quantitative dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (QdMRI) analysis. The QdMRI analysis includes performing four-dimensional (4D) image construction of a TIS subject's thoracic cavity. The 4D image includes a sequence of two dimensional (2D) images of the TIS subject's thoracic cavity over a respiratory cycle of the TIS subject. The QdMRI analysis also includes segmenting a region of interest (ROI) within the 4D image, determining TIS measurements within the ROI, comparing the TIS measurements to normal measurements determined from ROIs in 4D images of the thoracic cavities of normal subjects that are not afflicted by TIS, and outputting quantitative markers indicating deviation of the thoracic cavity of the TIS subject relative to the thoracic cavities of the normal subjects.....................Please see Fig. 1. Abstract.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUCIUS C.G. ALLEN whose telephone number is (703)756-5987. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 8-5pm (EST).
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/LUCIUS CAMERON GREEN ALLEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2673
/CHINEYERE WILLS-BURNS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2673