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Journal of Digital Imaging logoLink to Journal of Digital Imaging
. 2000 Feb;13(2):70–81. doi: 10.1007/BF03168371

Content-based retrieval in picture archiving and communication systems

Essam A El-Kwae 1,2,3, Haifeng Xu 1,2,3, Mansur R Kabuka 1,2,3,✉
PMCID: PMC3453193  PMID: 10843252

Abstract

A Content-Based Retrieval Architecture (COBRA) for picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) is introduced. COBRA improves the diagnosis, research, and training capabilities of PACS systems by adding retrieval by content features to those systems. COBRA is an open architecture based on widely used health care and technology standards. In addition to regular PACS components, COBRA includes additional components to handle representation, storage, and content-based similarity retrieval. Within COBRA, an anatomy classification algorithm is introduced to automatically classify PACS studies based on their anatomy. Such a classification allows the use of different segmentation and image-processing algorithms for different anatomies. COBRA uses primitive retrieval criteria such as color, texture, shape, and more complex criteria including object-based spatial relations and regions of interest. A prototype content-based retrieval system for MR brain images was developed to illustrate the concepts introduced in COBRA.

Key Words: content-based image retrieval, medical image databases, medical information system, picture archiving and communication systems, information retrieval

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