Biopsy planning and display apparatus

Abstract

Systems are provided for managing, planning and displaying the location of biopsy core sites across multiple same-patient visits or other stored biopsy plans to increase the confidence and accuracy of biopsy results. The systems may allow the operator to fuse multiple predefined and/or automatically generated biopsy core site plans in addition to previous biopsy sites with a current prostate image to assist in creating a final new biopsy core site plan. Further, the system may allow the operator to selectively view singular parts of the final plan to simplify the planning process. Further, the systems may assist the operator during the navigation phase of the biopsy by hiding biopsy core sites from the final plan that are not of immediate interest during the biopsy phase and thereby reducing clutter and distraction during biopsy sample acquisition.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method for use in a computer system associated with a medical imaging device for use in prostate imaging procedures, comprising:
 obtaining a first image of a prostate of a patient at a first time;   recording biopsy sample locations of biopsy samples with the first image, where the biopsy sample locations correspond with locations from which biopsy samples were taken from the prostate at the first time;   recording pathological information obtained from the biopsy samples with the first image, wherein the pathological information is recorded with a biopsy sample location corresponding to the location of a biopsy sample from which the pathological information was obtained;   storing the first image, the biopsy sample locations and the pathological information to an electronic record;   obtaining a current second image of the prostate of the patient at a second time;   registering the first and second images to identify a transformation between the images;   transforming the pathological information of the first image into a frame of reference of the second image;   generating a composite image where the pathological information is displayed in the frame of reference of the second image with the second image; and;   outputting the composite image to a display device.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the biopsy samples comprise biopsy core samples and wherein the pathological information includes locations of cells of interest along the length of the biopsy core samples. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 receiving at least one user selected target location and incorporating a location of the user selected target location into the first image.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 transforming the at least one user selected target location of the first image into a frame of reference of the second image; and   generating and outputting a composite image where the at least one user selected target location is displayed in the frame of reference of the second image and displayed with the second image.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 removing at least a portion of the pathological information from the composite image to generate a biopsy guidance image.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising accessing at least one pre-defined prostate plan from the electronic database and incorporating the pre-defined prostate plan into the composite image. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the pre-defined prostate plan comprises at least one of:
 a predefined biopsy site plan identifying one or more biopsy sites;   statistical information identifying location specific information for one or more areas of a prostate; and   an elastographical biopsy plan identifying one or more regions of tissue variance.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein information associated with the stored prostate plans is displayed in the composite image having a unique identifier. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 providing to a user a menu of available pre-defined prostate plan; and   receiving user inputs identifying the at least one pre-defined prostate plan.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the pathological information includes locations of cancer cells along a length of the biopsy samples. 
     
     
         12 . A method for use in a computer system associated with a medical imaging device for use in prostate imaging procedures, comprising:
 obtaining a first image of a prostate of a patient at a first time;   recording biopsy core sample locations of biopsy core samples with the first image, where the biopsy core sample locations correspond with locations from which biopsy core samples were taken from the prostate at the first time;   recording pathological information obtained from the biopsy core samples with the first image, wherein the pathological information is recorded with a biopsy core sample location corresponding to the location of a biopsy core sample from which the pathological information was obtained and wherein the pathological information includes locations of cells of interest along the length of the biopsy core samples;   receiving at least one user selected target location and incorporating a location of the user selected target location into the first image; and   storing the first image, the biopsy core sample locations, and the user selected target locations to an electronic record.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 obtaining a current second image of the prostate of the patient at a second time;   registering the first and second images to identify a transformation between the images;   transforming the at least one user selected target locations of the first image into a frame of reference of the second image;   generating a composite image where the at least one user selected target location is displayed in the frame of reference of the second image with the second image; and   outputting the composite image to a display device.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 storing said pathological information to said electronic record.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 transforming the pathological information of the first image into the frame of reference of the second image;   generating and outputting the composite image where the pathological information is displayed in the frame of reference of the second image with the second image.