Patent ID: 11903691
Assignee: SIEMENS HEALTHINEERS AG
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 19:
20. A system for automatically aligning MR scans for diagnostic scan planning, the system comprising:
an MRI scanner configured to acquire a 3D localizer image of an elbow and one or more computers configured to:
identify one or more initial landmarks that include at least one ligament in the 3D localizer image using a landmarking engine;
identify a main axis associated with the elbow based on the one or more initial landmarks, the main axis extending through the one or more initial landmarks;
re-orient the 3D localizer image to yield a re-oriented 3D localizer image based on the main axis, wherein the re-oriented 3D localizer image corresponds with a standard viewing position of the elbow;
apply the landmarking engine to the re-oriented 3D localizer image to yield one or more updated landmarks;
compute a plurality of reference points for performing a MR scan based on the one or more updated landmarks;
determine a scan plan based on the plurality of reference points; and
execute the scan plan for the elbow using the MRI scanner.