Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Jung Diagnostics Gmbh

Lothar Spies

Alexander Fischer

Matthieu Frederic Bal

Todd R McNutt

Bart Jacob Bakker

Manoj Narayanan

Daniel Gagnon

Vladimir Pekar

Michael Kaus

Kai Eck

Carsten Meyer

Carolina Ribbing

Peter Klaus Bachmann

Ralf Hoffmann

Himanshu P Shukla

Helga Hummel

Henrik Botterweck

Dragos-Nicolae Peligrad

Krishna Subramanyan

Timo Paulus

Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen

Kerstin Ritter

Joachim Seybold

Per Suppa

Catharina Lange

Hasan Celik

Ralph Buchert

Celine Saint Olive

Jochen Fiebach

Matthieu Bal

The invention relates to novel imaging-based biomarkers for characterizing the structure or function of a human or animal brain. These biomarkers can be a weighted confluency sum score (WCSS) or a percent shielding by brain lesions (SbBL). Methods implementing these biomarkers are also disclosed.

Imaging-based biomarker for characterizing the structure or function of human or animal brain tissue and related uses and methods

A method, a software program and a system for processing MRT data of the human brain of a patient, wherein three-dimensional MRT data resolved in voxels of the patient's brain and the brains of a normative database of a plurality of neurologically healthy human individuals are available. The MRT data of the patient's brain are segmented for each voxel into portions of grey substance, white substance and liquor by means of a classification algorithm, wherein for comparison with corresponding data of the normative database the data are normalized before, after or synchronously into a standardized stereotactic space whereby one or more normalized tissue maps result that contain the proportions determined by the classification algorithm, and the tissue map or tissue maps of the patient's brain is or are subjected to a voxel-wise statistical comparison with the correspondingly normalized and segmented data of the normative database.

Method and system for processing MRT data of the human brain

The invention relates to a general composite compartmental model and a compartmental analysis procedure to extract non-invasively the concentration (C) of the imaging agent in plasma (), in metabolites () and in blood elements () (like red cells, platelets, plasma protein etc.) from time signal curves measured within a reference tissue region (). This is made possible by deploying an injection function (S(t)) as input which models the amount of imaging agent administered to the patient as a function of time. The invention allows the presentation of the plasma input function to the medical practitioner without the need for invasively drawing blood samples.

System for the noninvasive determination of tracer concentration in blood

In a radiation therapy method, one or more planning images are acquired () of a subject. Features of at least malignant tissue are contoured in the one or more planning images to produce one or more initial feature contours. One or more treatment images of the subject are acquired (). The one or more initial feature contours are updated () based on the one or more treatment images. Radiation treatment parameters are optimized () based upon the updated one or more feature contours. Radiation treatment of the subject is performed () using the optimized parameters.

Radiotherapeutic treatment plan adaptation

A method within dynamic molecular imaging comprising dynamically estimating a first parameter (&#x3b2;(x)) and a second parameter (k(x)) of an activity function describing the bio distribution of an administered tracer, is disclosed. More specifically, the method comprises specifying a first target variance (&#x3c3;(x)) and a second target variance (&#x3c3;(x)) of the first parameter (&#x3b2;(x)) and the second parameter (k(x)) of the activity function, respectively; initiating an image acquisition; reconstructing the first parameter (&#x3b2;(x)) and the second parameter (k(x)); reconstructing a first associated variance (&#x3c3;(x)) and a second associated variance (&#x3c3;(x)) of the first parameter (&#x3b2;(x)) and the second parameter (k(x)), respectively; and repeating the image acquisition and the reconstructing until the first associated variance (&#x3c3;(x)) and the second associated variance (&#x3c3;(x)) are equal to or less than the first target variance (&#x3c3;(x)) and the second target variance (&#x3c3;(x)), respectively, &#x3c3;(x)&#x2266;&#x3c3;(x) and &#x3c3;(x)&#x2266;&#x3c3;(x). The method enables patient-specific adaptive protocols within molecular imaging.

Method to individualize kinetic parameter estimation for dynamic molecular imaging procedures

A method for use in functional medical imaging includes adaptively partitioning functional imaging data as a function of a spatially varying error model. The functional image data is partitioned according to an optimization strategy. The data may be visualized or used to plan a course of treatment. In one implementation, the image data is partitioned so as to vary its spatial resolution. In another, the number of clusters is varied based on the error model.

Error adaptive functional imaging

A system, apparatus, and method are based on a priori knowledge of the shape of the input function for defining an input region-if-interest (ROI) in pharmacokinetic modeling. Kinetic parameter estimation requires knowledge of tracer input activity and the present invention provides an automatic way to define an ROI for estimation of an input function that takes into account a priori knowledge of the shape of the input function based on an administered dose.

Knowledge-based input region of interest definition for pharmacokinetic modeling

An imaging system () comprises a data device (), which controls radiation data acquisition from a subject positioned in an examination region () for an examination. A rebinning processor () bins the acquired data periodically into a histogram (). A transform () transforms the histogram () into individual independent or uncorrelated components, each component including a signal content and a noise content. A stopping determining device () compares an aspect of at least one selected component to a predetermined threshold (TH) and, based on the comparison, terminates the data acquisition.

Patient scan time optimization for PET/SPECT imaging

An improved radiation therapy planning procedure is suggested. The procedure comprises the steps of specifying and determining the absolute grade of cell degeneracy by in-vitro tests, whereby marker(s) indicative for specific cell degeneracy are detected and quantified, establishing a biology-based segmentation of areas with similar grade of relative cell degeneracy and applying the absolute grade of cell degeneracy to the biology-based segmentation data, thereby establishing an improved radiation therapy planning procedure. Moreover, the present invention suggests a system for an improved radiation therapy planning procedure and its use in procedures of diagnosis and/or therapy management of cancer.

Radiation therapy flanning procedure

A diagnostic imaging system () corrects metal artifact streaks () emanating from a metal object () in a tomographic image (T). A first processor () reduces streaks () caused by mild artifacts by applying an adaptive filter (). The filter () is perpendicularly oriented toward the center of the metal object (). The weight of the filter () is a function of the local structure tensor and the vector pointing to the metal object (). If it is determined that the strong artifacts are present in the image, a second processor () applies a sinogram completed image algorithm to correct for severe artifacts in the image. The sinogram completed image and adaptively filtered image are fused to a final corrected image. In the fusion process, highly corrupted tomographic regions are replaced by the result of the sinogram completed image and the remainder is replaced by the adaptively filtered image.

Radial adaptive filter for metal artifact correction

In order to reduce an x-ray dose applied to a patient, it is necessary to know the dose absorbed by the patient. According to the present invention, there is provided a method of determining a local patient dose applied to a patient where after the reconstruction of the scan data into a diagnostic image, the scan data are backprojected into the patient volume, using the attenuation information of the diagnostic image to form a spatially varying photon fluence map. In parallel, the diagnostic image is segmented into anatomical structures to which dose-weighting factors are assigned. The locally absorbed dose is then calculated on the basis of the fluence map and the corresponding dose weights.

Reconstruction of local patient doses in computed tomography

The invention relates to an imaging system for imaging an object (), said imaging system comprising a detection unit () for consecutively acquiring projection data sets (P) of the object (), said detection unit () having a temporal response function that is characterized by at least a time constant (&#x3c4;), a rotation unit that, while the projection data sets (P) are being acquired, moves the detection unit () around the object () with an essentially constant angular velocity (&#x3c9;), a reconstruction unit () for computing an image data set () of the object () from the projection data sets (P), and a filter unit () that, in an active state, applies a filter (f) on the image data set () to compute a correction, which filter acts as a derivative on the perturbed image, essentially in a direction corresponding to the direction of the angular velocity, is essentially proportional to the time constant (&#x3c4;) and is essentially proportional to the angular velocity (&#x3c9;), said filter unit () being arranged to subtract the correction from the image data set ().

System and method for the correction of temporal artifacts in tomographic images

A reconstruction processor () reconstructs acquired projection data (S) into an uncorrected reconstructed image (T). A classifying algorithm () classifies pixels of the uncorrected reconstructed image (T) at least into metal, bone, tissue, and air pixel classes. A clustering algorithm () iteratively assigns pixels to best fit classes. A pixel replacement algorithm () replaces metal class pixels of the uncorrected reconstructed image (T) with pixel values of the bone density class to generate a metal free image. A morphological algorithm () applies prior knowledge of the subject's anatomy to the metal free image to correct the shapes of the class regions to generate a model tomogram image. A forward projector () forward projects the model tomogram image to generate model projection data (S). A corrupted rays identifying algorithm () identifies the rays in the original projection data (S) which lie through the regions containing metal objects. A corrupted rays replacement algorithm () replaces the corrupted regions with corresponding regions of the model projection data to generate corrected projection data (S'). The reconstruction processor () reconstructs the corrected projection data (S) into a corrected reconstructed 3D image (T&#x2032;).

Image-wide artifacts reduction caused by high attenuating objects in ct deploying voxel tissue class

A radiation therapy planning procedure and device provides a model-based segmentation of co-registered anatomical and functional imaging information to provide a more precise radiation therapy plan. The biology-based segmentation models the imaging information to produce a parametric map, which is then clustered into regions of similar radiation sensitivity or other biological parameters relevant for treatment definition. Each clustered region is prescribed its own radiation prescription dose.

Growing community of inventors

Hamburg, Germany

Lothar Spies