Abstract:
Technology breakthroughs in high-speed, high-capacity, and high performance desk-top
computers and workstations make the possibility of integrating multimedia medical
data to better support clinical decision making, computer-aided education, and research
not only attractive, but feasible. To systematically evaluate results from increasingly
automated image segmentation it is necessary to correlate them with the expert judgments
of radiologists and other clinical specialists interpreting the images. These are
contained in increasingly computerized radiological reports and other related clinical
records. But to make automated comparison feasible it is necessary to first ensure
compatibility of the knowledge content of images with the descriptions contained in
these records. Enough common vocabulary, language, and knowledge representation components
must be represented on the computer, followed by automated extraction of image-content
descriptions from the text, which can then be matched to the results of automated
image segmentation. A knowledge-based approach to image segmentation is essential
to obtain the structured image descriptions needed for matching against the expert’s
descriptions. We have developed a new approach to medical image analysis which helps
generate such descriptions: a knowledge-based object-centered hierarchical planning
method for automatically composing the image analysis processes. The problem-solving
steps of specialists are represented at the knowledge level in terms of goals, tasks, and domain objects and concepts separately from the implementation level for specific representations of different image types, and generic analysis methods.
This system can serve as a major functional component in incrementally building and
updating a structured and integrated hybrid information system of patient data. This
approach has been tested for magnetic resonance image interpretation, and has achieved
promising results.
Keywords:
Knowledge-based Imaging - Image Segmentation - Medical Image Databases - Radiological
Reports - Integration