Patent ID: 8185186

Claim:
A method for assessing an effectiveness of a treatment for a tissue region, the method comprising: obtaining a first set of water diffusion data for said tissue region with an MRI device configured to collect diffusion MRI data; obtaining, after administration of a treatment to said tissue region, a second set of water diffusion data for said tissue region with said MRI device; processing said first and second sets of water diffusion data with an algorithm to align said first and second sets of water diffusion data using at least a non-linear 3D warping deformation, wherein said algorithm comprises a plurality of schedule lines, each schedule line defining a set of parameters in its respective registration role, wherein each set of parameters includes an imposed image resolution, and wherein the image resolutions increase as a function of sequentially selected schedule lines; processing said first and second sets of water diffusion data with a functional diffusion map algorithm to generate a functional diffusion map for said tissue region, wherein said functional diffusion map characterizes spatially aligned tissue regions as having altered or unaltered water diffusion properties; and assessing the effectiveness of said administered treatment based on said functional diffusion map.