Using image references in radiology reports to support report-to-image navigation

Abstract

A system, method and computer readable storage medium for retrieving a narrative report for at least one study including a plurality of images of a patient from a memory, determining text structure boundaries to identify and classify each text structure in the narrative report, determining image references in each text structure of the narrative report, extracting image references from text structures classified as including an image reference and determining a study to which an extracted image reference corresponds.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for medical report-to-image navigation, comprising:
 retrieving a narrative report for at least one study including a plurality of images of a patient from a memory;   determining text structure boundaries to identify and classify each text structure in the narrative report;   determining image references in each text structure of the narrative report;   extracting image references from text structures classified as including an image reference; and   determining a study to which an extracted image reference corresponds.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the text structure is a sentence and determining sentence boundaries includes identifying end-of-sentence markers. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising assigning end-of-sentence markers to a label including one of: i) not end of sentence; (ii) end of sentence, and sentence is a section header; (iii) end of sentence, and sentence is the last sentence in a paragraph; and (iv) end of sentence and sentence is neither a section header nor the last sentence in a paragraph. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein extracting image references includes one of: (i) extracting references where both series and image information is explicitly provided with a numeric value; (ii) extracting references where a series is referred to using an imaging scanning plane; (iii) extracting information where series information is included; and (iv) extracting information where a number over number pattern is provided. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining image references includes identifying image references including predetermined keywords indicating one of images, series, planar information, measurement values and date values. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein distinguishing image references from measurement and date values includes identifying image references including predetermined formats of measurements and dates, respectively. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining a study to which an extracted image reference corresponds includes one of identifying predetermined keywords indicating a prior study and identifying a predetermined formats of dates. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising rendering a report including the extracted image reference and the study to which the extracted image corresponds. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising displaying the report. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the extracted image reference is displayed as a hyperlink such that selecting the hyperlink displays a corresponding image. 
     
     
         11 . A system for medical report-to-image navigation, comprising:
 a memory including a narrative report for at least one study including a plurality of images for a patient; and   a processor retrieving the narrative report from the memory, determining text structure boundaries to identify and classify each text structure in the narrative report, determining measurement and date values, extracting image references from text structures, and determining a study to which an extracted image reference corresponds.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the text structure is a sentence and the processor determines sentence boundaries by identifying end-of-sentence markers. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the processor assigns the end-of-sentence markers to a label including one of: i) not end of sentence; (ii) end of sentence, and sentence is a section header; (iii) end of sentence, and sentence is the last sentence in a paragraph; and (iv) end of sentence and sentence is neither a section header nor the last sentence in a paragraph. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor extracts image references based on one of the following rules: (i) extracting references where both series and image information is explicitly provided with a numeric value; (ii) extracting references where a series is referred to using an imaging scanning plane; (iii) extracting information where series information is included; and (iv) extracting information where a number over number pattern is provided. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor determines image references by identifying image references including predetermined keywords indicating one of images, series, planar information, measurement values and date values. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor distinguishes image references from measurement and date values by identifying image references including predetermined formats of measurements and dates, respectively. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor determines a study to which an extracted image reference corresponds by one of identifying predetermined keywords indicating a prior study and identifying a predetermined formats of dates. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor renders a report including the extracted image reference and the study to which the extracted image corresponds, wherein the extracted image reference is displayed as a hyperlink such that selecting the hyperlink displays a corresponding image. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the processor distinguishes image references from measurement and date values to classify whether each text structure includes an image reference. 
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including a set of instructions executable by a processor, the set of instructions operable to:
 retrieve a narrative report for at least one study including a plurality of images of a patient from a memory;   determine text structure boundaries to identify and classify each text structure in the narrative report;   determine image references in each text structure of the narrative report;   analyze the text structures to identify and mark measurement and date values;   extract image references from marked text structures; and   determine a study to which an extracted image reference corresponds.