Patent ID: 7660619

Claim:
A method for using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate a selected region of interest of an object, the method comprising: acquiring at a plurality of successive acquisition times an MRI image of the selected region of interest of a sample object having a known condition; generating for the sample object a function representing a mean intensity of each of the acquired MRI images for each of the successive acquisition times; acquiring at a plurality of successive acquisition times an MRI image of the selected region of interest of a test object having an unknown condition, the test object being different from the sample object; generating for the test object a function representing a mean intensity of each of the acquired MRI images for each of the successive acquisition times; evaluating the unknown condition of the test object by comparing the generated function for the test object to the generated function for the sample object; and constructing a development time table of conditions of the test object so as to monitor the development of a disease.