Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090290775 | Method and System for Selecting the Number of Gaussian Modes for the Segmentation of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (MR) Images - A method for automatically selecting a number of Gaussian modes for segmentation of a cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) image, including: identifying a left ventricle (LV) in a cardiac MR image slice; quantifying the LV blood pool; obtaining a mask for the LV blood pool; generating a ring mask for a myocardium of the LV from the LV blood pool mask; fitting three Gaussian modes to a histogram of the image slice to obtain a corresponding homogeneity image for the myocardium; computing a quality of fitting (QOF) measure for the three Gaussian modes based on the corresponding homogeneity image; repeating the fitting and computing steps for four and five Gaussian modes; and selecting the homogeneity image of the number of Gaussian modes with the largest QOF measure as the homogeneity image for processing. | 11-26-2009 |
20090290778 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING MR MYOCARDIAL PERFUSION MAPS WITHOUT USER INTERACTION - A method for automatically generating a myocardial perfusion map from a sequence of magnetic resonance (MR) images includes determining a region of interest (ROI) in a reference frame selected from a time series of myocardial perfusion MR image slices, registering each image slice in the time series of slices to the reference frame to obtain a series of registered ROIs, and using the series of registered ROIs to segment endo- and epi-cardial boundaries of a myocardium in the ROI. | 11-26-2009 |
20090324012 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTOUR TRACKING IN CARDIAC PHASE CONTRAST FLOW MR IMAGES - A method for tracking a contour in cardiac phase contrast flow magnetic resonance (MR) images includes estimating a global translation of a contour in a reference image in a time sequence of cardiac phase contrast flow MR images to a contour in a current image in the time sequence of images by finding a 2-dimensional translation vector that maximizes a similarity function of the contour in the reference image and the current image calculated over a bounding rectangle containing the contour in the reference image, estimating an affine transformation of the contour in the reference image to the contour in the current image, and performing a constrained local deformation of the contour in the current image. | 12-31-2009 |
20100021034 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE GENERATION OF ATTENUATION CORRECTION MAPS FROM MR IMAGES - A method for generating a positron emission tomography (PET) attenuation correction map from magnetic resonance (MR) images includes segmenting a 3-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance (MR) whole-body image of a patient into low-signal regions, fat regions, and soft tissue regions; classifying the low-signal regions as either lungs, bones, or air by identifying lungs, identifying an abdominal station, and identifying a lower body station; and generating an attenuation map from the segmentation result by replacing the segmentation labels with corresponding representative attenuation coefficients. | 01-28-2010 |
20100121175 | Automatic Femur Segmentation And Condyle Line Detection in 3D MR Scans For Alignment Of High Resolution MR - A method for automatic femur segmentation and condyle line detection. The method includes: scanning a knee of a patient with medical imaging equipment to obtain 3D imaging data with such equipment; processing the obtained 3D imaging data in a digital processor to determine two lines tangent to the bottom of the knee condyles in an axial and a coronal plane; and automatically scanning the patient in the defined plane. The processing includes: determining an approximate location of the knee; using the determined the location to define a volume of interest; segmenting the femur in the defined volume of interest; and determining a bottom point on the femur portion on a right side and a left side of the segmented femur in an axial and a coronal slice to determine the two lines. | 05-13-2010 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120076380 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BACKGROUND PHASE CORRECTION FOR PHASE CONTRAST FLOW IMAGES - A method for correcting the background phase in magnetic resonance phase contrast flow images includes providing a time series of velocity encoded magnetic resonance images of a patient, where the time series of velocity encoded images comprises for each time point a phase contrast image where a pixel intensity is proportional to a flow velocity, measuring a change of intensity for each pixel over the time series of phase contrast images, identifying pixels with a low measure of temporal change as stationary pixels, and calculating a correction field for the stationary pixels, where the correction field represents a background phase to be subtracted from the phase contrast image. | 03-29-2012 |
20120076382 | MOTION TRACKING FOR CLINICAL PARAMETER DERIVATION AND ADAPTIVE FLOW ACQUISITION IN MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING - A method for clinical parameter derivation and adaptive flow acquisition within a sequence of magnetic resonance images includes commencing an acquisition of a sequence of images. One or more landmarks are automatically detected from within one or more images of the sequence of images. The detected one or more landmarks are propagated across subsequent images of the sequence of images. A plane is fitted to the propagation of landmarks. The positions of landmarks or alternatively the position of the fitted plane within the sequence of images is used for derivation of clinical parameters such as tissue velocities and/or performing adaptive flow acquisitions to measure blood flow properties. | 03-29-2012 |
20120078085 | Method of Analysis for Dynamic Magnetic Resonance Perfusion Imaging | 03-29-2012 |
20120087561 | INTERACTION METHOD FOR REGIONS OF-INTEREST IN TIME SERIES IMAGES - A method for identifying a region of interest within a time sequence of images includes acquiring a time sequence of images comprising a plurality of image frames. Image segmentation is performed to segment a region of interest (ROI) from within each of the plurality of image frames of the time sequence of images. Manual edits are received for the ROI within one or more of the plurality of image frames. The manual edits are propagated to other image frames of the plurality of images. An extent to which each of the manual edits are propagated to other image frames is dependent upon a transformation function or deformation field used to propagate the manual edits and a weighing factor that is influenced by a distance in time between the other image frames and the frames that have been manually edited. | 04-12-2012 |
20120148129 | Prior Enhanced Compressed Sensing (PRINCE-CS) Reconstruction for Dynamic 2D-Radial Cardiac MRI - A reconstructed image is rendered from a set of MRI data by first estimating an image with an area which does not contain artifacts or has an artifact with a relative small magnitude. Corresponding data elements in the estimated image and a trial image are processed, for instance by multiplication, to generate an intermediate data set. The intermediate data set is transformed and minimized iteratively to generate a reconstructed image that is free or substantially free of artifacts. In one embodiment a Karhunen-Loeve Transform (KLT) is used. A sparsifying transformation may be applied to generate the reconstructed image. The sparsifying transformation may be also not be applied. | 06-14-2012 |
20120177269 | Detection of Landmarks and Key-frames in Cardiac Perfusion MRI Using a Joint Spatial-Temporal Context Model - A method including receiving an image sequence, wherein the image sequence includes a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) image frames of an organ arranged in a time sequence; constructing a three-dimensional (3D) volume by stacking a plurality of the 2D image frames in time order; detecting a best bounding box for a target of interest in the 3D volume, wherein the best bounding box is specified by a plurality of parameters including spatial and temporal information contained in the 3D volume; and determining the target of interest from the best bounding box. | 07-12-2012 |
20120189183 | Automatic Registration of Image Series with Varying Contrast Based on Synthetic Images Derived from Intensity Behavior Model - A method for performing motion compensation in a series of magnetic resonance (MR) images includes acquiring a set of MR image frames spanning different points along an MR recovery curve. A motion-free synthetic image is generated for each of the acquired MR image frames using prior knowledge pertaining to an MR recovery curve. Each of the acquired MR images is registered to its corresponding generated synthetic images. Motion within each of the acquired MR image is corrected based on its corresponding generated synthetic image that has been registered thereto. | 07-26-2012 |
20130121550 | Non-Contrast-Enhanced 4D MRA Using Compressed Sensing Reconstruction - A reconstructed image is rendered of a patient by a processor from a set of undersampled MRI data by first subtracting two repetitions of the acquired data in k-space to create a third dataset. The processor reconstructs the image by minimizing an objective function under a constraint related to the third dataset, wherein the objective function includes applying a Karhunen-Loeve Transform (KLT) to a temporal dimension of data. The objective function under the constraint is expressed as arg min | 05-16-2013 |
20130259337 | Cardiac Chamber Volume Computation from Contours and Base Plane in Cardiac MR Cine Images - A system receives cardiac cine MR images consists of multiple slices of the heart over time. A series of short axis images slices are received. Long axis images are also received by the system, wherein a base plane defined by landmark points is detected. An intersection of the base plane with a contour of a heart chamber is determined for a plurality of slices in the short axis image. A volume for each of the contour slices covering the heart chamber, including for contours that are limited by base plane intersections, is evaluated. All slice volumes are summed to determine a total volume of the chamber. In one embodiment the chamber is a left ventricle and the landmark is a mitral valve. An ejection factor is determined. | 10-03-2013 |
20130297331 | Medical Imaging Guideline Compliance System - A system supports medical imaging compliance with guideline and reimbursement requirements using at least one repository and a compliance processor. The at least one repository associates information including, specific reimbursement requirements of a patient insurance company with an imaging protocol compliant with predetermined guidelines for imaging a particular anatomical feature and with a specific type of imaging device and with multiple different steps of the imaging protocol. The compliance processor uses the information in, determining whether a particular imaging protocol for imaging a particular anatomical feature of a particular patient on a particular type of imaging device is compliant with the guidelines and the reimbursement requirements and identifying at least one of, (a) a missing step and (b) an incorrect step, in the particular imaging protocol. | 11-07-2013 |