Bracco International Bv

Bracco Suisse Sa

Tristan Messager

Marcel Arditi

Peter Frinking

Nicolas Rognin

Michel Schneider

Jean-Philippe Thiran

Ruth Campos

An embodiment analyzes a body part of a patient, which patient is perfused with a contrast agent that is capable of circulating within the patient and of being substantially immobilized on a biological target. An embodiment of a corresponding system provides an echo signal that is indicative of a response over time to an interrogation signal of the body part, fits the echo signal with a time model function that models an evolution over time of the contrast agent in the body part, the time model function including a combination of a circulation function that models the circulation of the contrast agent and a decay function that models a decay of the echo signal from the immobilized contrast agent, and estimates at least one kinetics indicator of the contrast agent from the time model function.

Quantification analysis of immobilized contrast agent in medical 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

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

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Geneva, Switzerland

Tristan Messager