Bracco Suisse Sa

Bracco International Bv

Bracco Research Sa

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation

Nicolas Rognin

Marcel Arditi

Peter Frinking

Laurent Mercier

Tristan Messager

Feng Yan

Sibylle Pochon

Jean-Philippe Thiran

Emmanuel Gaud

Eric Allemann

Ruth Campos

Nathalie Biolluz

An embodiment includes analyzing a body part perfused with a contrast agent, which has been pre-administered as a bolus to circulate through the body-part with at least a first passage during an analysis interval. The analyzing includes providing at least one input signal indicative of a response to an interrogation signal of a corresponding location of the body part during the analysis interval, and fitting each input signal over the analysis interval by an instance of a combined bolus function of time, based on a combination of a first simple bolus function of time modeling the first passage of the contrast agent and at least one second simple bolus function of time each one modeling a corresponding second passage of the contrast agent.

Initialization of fitting parameters for perfusion assessment based on bolus administration

A solution for diagnostic applications is proposed. Particularly, a corresponding diagnostic system includes means (-) for providing (A-A) a plurality of input signals representative of a body-part being perfused with a contrast agent over time, each input signal being indicative of a response to an interrogating stimulus of a corresponding location of the body-part possibly including the contrast agent, means (-) for generating (A-A) a plurality of filtered signals from selected input signals of selected locations, each filtered signal at each instant over time being generated from a corresponding selected input signal according to a portion of the selected input signal including said instant, and means (-) for monitoring (A-A) each filtered signal to detect a peak in the response to the interrogation stimulus of the corresponding selected location, the peak being detected in response to the fulfillment of a stability condition by a corresponding portion of the filtered signal.

Real-time perfusion imaging and quantification

A data-processing method includes providing a parametric map including a plurality of parameter values, each one characterizing a corresponding location of a body-part. The method includes determining at least one statistical indicator of at least one distribution of a plurality of analysis parameter values corresponding to selected analysis locations, each statistical indicator being indicative of a condition of an analysis region of the body-part defined by the analysis locations.

Auto-scaling of parametric images

A system for facilitating the detection of an immobilized contrast agent in medical imaging applications is proposed. The system includes means for providing a sequence of a total number of input images obtained at corresponding acquisition instants by imaging a body-part of a patient subjected to an administration of a contrast agent capable of circulating within the patient and of being substantially immobilized on a biological target, each input image including a plurality of input values each one indicative of a response to an interrogation signal of a corresponding portion of the body-part possibly including said contrast agent, and means for reducing a contribution of the circulating contrast agent within the body-part in at least one selected input image; the means for reducing includes means for creating a filtered image corresponding to each selected input image by replacing a set of input values of the selected input image with a set of corresponding filtered values, each filtered value being representative of the lowest response of the corresponding portion of the body-part in a set of multiple input images including the selected input image, the set of multiple input images consisting of a number of input images lower than the total number.

Detection of immobilized contrast agent in medical imaging applications based on flow dynamics analysis

A tissue response in a predetermined unit of volume or area tissue of interest is determined by excluding some data of the adjacent tissues based upon a blood flow direction with respect to the tissue of interest. The exclusion is based upon a predetermined time-related parameter such as time-to-peak and mean-transit time in the fitted curves of the uptake of a contrast agent in the adjacent tissues and the tissue of interest. Furthermore, the blood flow direction is determined in terms of a 3D vector based upon a plurality of weighted individual vectors from the adjacent or neighboring voxels with respect to the voxel of interest.

Method and system for quantitative vectorial perfusion based upon blood flow direction using 4D medical imaging

An embodiment for analyzing a body-part of a patient is proposed. A corresponding data-processing method includes the steps of providing a sequence of input images representing the body-part over an analysis period, each input image including a set of input values each one being indicative of a response to an interrogation signal of a corresponding location of the body-part at a corresponding acquisition instant included in the analysis period, associating an analysis function of time with each one of a set of selected locations, the analysis function modeling a trend of the input values of the selected location in the sequence of input images, and providing a reference function of time for the analysis functions; in an embodiment, the data-processing method further includes comparing the analysis function of each selected location with the reference function to determine a polarity trend representing a trend over the analysis period of a polarity of a divergence between the analysis function of the selected location and the reference function, and creating a parametric image including a parametric value for each selected location, the parametric value being indicative of the polarity trend of the selected location.

Parametric images based on dynamic behavior over time

An embodiment of a system is proposed for imaging a body part including a tissue, the body part being perfused with a contrast agent. The system includes means for providing a sequence of original images offering a digital representation over time of the body-part, each original image including a plurality of original values each one indicative of a response to an interrogation signal of a corresponding location of the body-part possibly including the contrast agent with a contribution of the tissue substantially reduced. The system further includes means for generating an overlaid image for each one of a set of selected original images, for each one of a set of selected locations the overlaid image including an overlaid value consisting of a) a linearized value derived from the corresponding original value to be substantially proportional to a concentration of the contrast agent in the selected location when the linearized value reaches a predefined threshold, or otherwise b) a compressed value depending non-linearly on the corresponding response to the interrogation signal; and means for displaying the overlaid images in succession.

Instantaneous visualization of contrast agent concentration in imaging applications

An input image includes a plurality of input values (i.e., pixel or voxel values), each input value indicative of a response to an interrogation signal of a corresponding location of a body-part, which possibly includes a contrast agent. At least one filtered image is generated from a plurality of selected input images and includes a filtered value for each of a plurality of selected ones of the locations. Each filtered value is indicative of the contrast agent leaving the selected location and is obtained by reducing a contribution of the contrast agent that is substantially stationary at the selected location along the selected input images for a period of time equal to or shorter than a first threshold and by reducing a contribution of the contrast agent that is substantially stationary for a period of time equal to or longer than a second higher threshold.

Detection of the detachment of immobilized contrast agent in medical imaging applications

A perfusion assessment system is proposed. The system includes means for providing an echo-power signal indicative of a perfusion of a contrast agent in a body-part under analysis, the contrast agent being administered as a bolus and undergoing a significant destruction during a passage of the contrast agent in the body-part, means for associating the echo-power signal to a model function including the product between a bolus function indicative of the passage of the contrast agent without said destruction and a reperfusion function indicative of a reperfusion of the contrast agent in the body part following the destruction corresponding to a substantially constant inflow of the contrast agent, and means for estimating at least one perfusion indicator from the bolus function and/or the reperfusion function.

Perfusion assessment method and system based on bolus administration

An embodiment of a medical imaging system is proposed. The system includes means for providing a sequence of recorded input images each one offering a digital representation at a corresponding instant of a body part being perfused with a contrast agent, each input image including a plurality of visualizing values each one representing a corresponding portion of the body part, and means for associating each sequence of corresponding sets in the input images of at least one visualizing value with a model function of time; the system further includes means for generating a sequence of computed images at further instants, each computed image including a plurality of further visualizing values each one being determined by an instantaneous function-value which is calculated from the associated model function at the corresponding further instant, and means for displaying the sequence of computed images.

Perfusion assessment method and system based on animated perfusion imaging

A perfusion assessment system is proposed. The system includes means for providing an echo-power signal indicative of a reperfusion of a contrast agent in a body-part of a living subject following destruction of a significant portion of the contrast agent in the body-part, means for associating the echo-power signal to a perfusion function with an S-shape based on a plurality of elementary perfusion functions with said S-shape each one for a corresponding value of at least one perfusion parameter, the elementary perfusion functions being weighted according to a probability density distribution of the at least one perfusion parameter, wherein the S-shape includes an initial portion with substantially zero first derivatives, a final portion with substantially zero first derivatives, and a central portion between the initial portion and the final portion changing monotonically from a value of the initial portion to a value of the final portion, means for determining at least one shape indicator of the probability density distribution, and means for comparing the at least one shape indicator with at least one predetermined further shape indicator to identify morphological characteristics of the body-part according to a result of the comparison.

System for extracting morphological information through a perfusion assessment process

An image registration method for use in medical imaging includes the steps of: providing a sequence of images each one including a digital representation of a body-part under analysis, selecting a reference image within the sequence, the remaining images of the sequence defining moving images, and re-aligning at least one portion of a moving image with respect to the reference image. The step of re-aligning may include: defining a delimitation mask identifying a region on the reference image with which the at least one portion of the moving image has to be re-aligned, and a feature mask identifying a further region on the reference image within which the re-alignment is calculated, determining an optimized transformation for compensating a displacement of the moving image with respect to the reference image by optimizing a similarity measure, and transforming the at least one portion of the moving image according to the optimized transformation.

Image registration method and apparatus for medical imaging based on multiple masks

A medical imaging system is proposed. The system includes means for providing a plurality of echo signals indicative of a response of a body part to a plurality of ultrasound pulsed waves having different acoustic pressures, the body part including a tissue being perfused with a contrast agent, and means for discriminating in the echo signals a contribution of a first type of contrast agent from a contribution of a second type of contrast agent and/or of the tissue, at least one harmonic component of the contribution of the first type of contrast agent having an acoustic power changing according to a first dependency law on the acoustic pressure and the at least one harmonic component of the contribution of the second type of contrast agent and/or of the tissue having an acoustic power changing according to at least one second dependency law on the acoustic pressure, wherein the means for discriminating includes means for significantly reducing the at least one harmonic component of the contribution of the second type of contrast agent and/or of the tissue with respect to the at least one harmonic component of the contribution of the first type of contrast agent according to the corresponding dependency laws.

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Manno, Switzerland

Nicolas Rognin