Patent ID: 8433115

Claim:
A method for enhancing stent visibility in digital medical images, comprising the steps of: receiving a time series of 2-dimensional (2D) images of a stent in a vessel; estimating motion of the stent in a subset of images of the time series of images; estimating motion of clutter in the subset of images, wherein clutter comprises anatomical structures other than the stent; estimating a clutter layer in the subset of images from the estimated clutter motion; estimating a stent layer in the subset of images from the clutter layer and the estimated clutter motion; and minimizing a functional ⁢ ∑ i ∈ [ 1 , K ] ⁢ ⁢  I i - T i S ⁡ ( I S ) - T i C ⁡ ( I C )  2 , of the estimated stent motion, the estimated stent layer, the estimated clutter motion, and the estimated clutter layer to calculate a refined stent layer image, wherein K is the number of images in the subset of images, wherein K is the number of images in the subset of images, I i is a member of the subset of images, I S represents the stent layer estimated in a previous iteration, and T i S represents the estimated stent layer motion, I C represents the estimated clutter layer, T i C represents the estimated clutter motion, wherein said refined stent layer image has enhanced visibility of the stent, wherein the steps of receiving a time series of 2D images, estimating motion of the stent, estimating motion of clutter, estimating a clutter layer, estimating a stent layer, and minimizing a functional are performed by a computer processor.