Semantic interrogation for a radiological documentary record

This article originates from the need to introduce semantic aspects in the retrieval procedures in medical information systems. Our working database records documents which gathers various type of information: medical images (X-rays, MRI, tomography, etc.), data on the patient's civil and clinical identity, and examination reports. A retrieval process should answer queries involving both explicit alphanumeric data from the document and information that is carried by the images. We propose a data model that allows content-based retrieval for the images. The image is viewed as pairs of iso-semantic regions and signals in respect of an anatomical and a pathological model. A graphical interface is also provided for the users to index the images and formulate their queries.