Patent Document ID: 10043111
Application ID: 15058427
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A medical image processing apparatus having one or more processors, the one or more processors performs as: candidate detection unit that detects intervertebral disc candidates and vertebral body candidates from a medical image including intervertebral discs and vertebral bodies; specification unit that specifies at least either the intervertebral discs or the vertebral bodies included in the medical image using the intervertebral disc candidates and the vertebral body candidates, wherein the specification unit specifies at least either the intervertebral discs or the vertebral bodies included in the medical image based on periodicity of a distribution of the intervertebral disc candidates and the vertebral body candidates, centerline detection unit that detects at least one of a spine centerline and a spinal cord centerline from the medical image; and distribution generation unit that generates a distribution of a feature amount indicating the intervertebral disc likeness and a feature amount indicating the vertebral body likeness by cumulatively adding the feature amount indicating the intervertebral disc likeness and the feature amount indicating the vertebral body likeness on at least one of the spine centerline and the spinal cord centerline with a sign of the feature amount indicating the intervertebral disc likeness or the feature amount indicating the vertebral body likeness being inverted, wherein the specification unit specifies at least either the intervertebral discs or the vertebral bodies included in the medical image based on the distribution of the feature amount indicating the intervertebral disc likeness and the feature amount indicating the vertebral body likeness.