The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 23, 1997
Filed:
Nov. 19, 1996
Rupert William Curwen, Ballston Lake, NY (US);
Richard Ian Hartley, Schenectady, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
The present invention determines the epicardial boundary, being a closed curve dividing the myocardium from the tissue and blood surrounding the left ventricle. A mean and standard deviation is determined for pixels of a medical image of the subject's myocardial tissue. These are used to define a 'goodness function' over the image which is positive for pixels statistically likely to be myocardial tissue, and negative for other pixels. An initial curve for modeling the epicardium in radial coordinates starts with a curve of inner myocardial boundary obtained my conventional imaging techniques. This curve is then iteratively updated to maximize the total 'goodness function' of the region encompassed.