Patent ID: 7806838

Claim:
An image analysis method for abnormal hip structures, comprising: providing a plurality of transverse sections of a bone structure; recognizing at least one hip structure from the transverse sections, wherein the hip structure comprise a femur neck, and the recognition of the hip structure comprises the steps of: determining a center of a femur stem by extrapolating a femur stem axis; intersecting a first bone boundary using a vector from the initial center along each integral angular position; interpolating a normal radius inside a concave or convex feature using radii of both ends of the structural feature; determining an initial centerline of the femur neck; regressing a new centerline according to midpoints from each pixel on the initial centerline; detecting tumors and fractures at the femur neck using surface normal lines at each pixel of the regressed centerline; determining a center plane of the femur neck according to the centerlines on the transverse sections resolving the femur neck; orthogonally projecting the centerlines of each transverse sections onto the center plane of the femur neck to re-determine a centerline of the transverse sections and structural features of the femur neck; and determining a femur neck axis according to the re-determined centerline and structural features; recognizing abnormities of the hip structure by respectively recognizing concave, convex, and perforated features on the hip structure as fractures, tumors, and spurs, and calculating structural and feature properties for the abnormities of the hip structure; and determining whether the hip structure is abnormal or not, or determining a restoration operation for the hip structure according to the calculated structural and feature properties of the hip structure.