Patent ID: 9424642
Filing Date: 2016-08-23
CPC Classification: A61B,G06T,G16H

Claim Text:
1. A method performed by a computer processing unit executing computer readable instructions, stored in a non-transitory computer-readable memory, comprising: (a) creating a summed 3D nuclear medicine imaging data by summing a plurality of 3D nuclear medicine imaging data pixel by pixel, wherein each of the plurality of 3D nuclear medicine imaging data is associated with a plurality of different phases of a cardiac cycle; (b) determining pixels corresponding to myocardial regions in the summed 3D nuclear medicine imaging data; (c) defining a plurality of tracing directions based on the summed 3D nuclear medicine imaging data, and determining a reference myocardial center base point, a reference inner myocardial wall base point and a reference outer myocardial wall base point for each tracing direction of the plurality of tracing directions; (d) determining a phase-specific myocardial center base point for each tracing direction of the plurality of tracing directions for each phase of the plurality of different phases based on the corresponding 3D nuclear medicine imaging data; and (e) determining a difference in position of the reference myocardial center base point and the phase-specific myocardial center base point, and determining a phase-specific inner myocardial wall base point and a phase-specific outer myocardial wall base point by shifting the reference inner myocardial wall base point and the reference outer myocardial wall base point respectively based on the determined difference, for each tracing direction of the plurality of tracing directions for each phase of the plurality of different phases.