Patent ID: 7477929

Claim:
A method for forecasting the contrast medium flow in a living body, comprising: injecting a defined test bolus with a contrast medium into the body; observing and determining a time concentration profile of the contrast medium over a limited time period with a number of measuring instants at at least one location in the body with the aid of a tomographic method; forecasting a time profile of the contrast medium concentration of another contrast medium dose from the measured data obtained via the distribution of the contrast medium, with the aid of a linear cause/effect formulation; and using the following calculation formula for forecasting the time concentration profile {tilde over (c)} R (t) of the contrast medium at at least one of the previously measured locations of the body: c ~ R ⁡ ( t ) = 1 F T ⁢ ∑ n = - ∞ ∞ ⁢ ∫ - ∞ ∞ ⁢ ⅆ t ′ ⁢ c ~ R ⁡ ( t + t 0 ⁢ T - n ⁢ ⁢ Δ T - t ′ ) ⁢ b R ′ ⁡ ( t ′ ) , in which {tilde over (c)} R (t+t 0T −nΔ T −t′) corresponds to the concentration displaced from the instant t to the instant t+t 0T −nΔ T −t′, F T corresponds to the flow rate of the contrast medium of the test bolus, b′ R (t′) corresponds to the time derivative of the profile of the contrast medium bolus administered, t corresponds to the forecast instant, and t′ corresponds to the integration variable.