Patent ID: 7116808

Claim:
A method for producing an image sequence comprising the steps of: determining a first set of deformation vectors that maps volume elements of a first volume dataset of an examination subject onto volume elements of a second volume dataset of said examination subject, acquired at a point in time different from said first volume dataset; determining a second set of deformation vectors that maps volume elements of the second volume dataset onto volume elements of the first dataset; producing a first set of intermediate volume datasets comprising i intermediate volume datasets by, for each intermediate volume dataset in said first set of intermediate volume datasets, calculating a first attenuated deformation vector from a weighting of the deformation vectors of said first set of deformation vectors with a deformation factor A i , with 0<A i <1, and by multiplying the volume elements in said first volume dataset respectively by said first attenuated deformation vectors; producing a second set of intermediate volume datasets comprising i intermediate volume datasets by, for each of said intermediate volume datasets in said second set of intermediate volume datasets, calculating an attenuated deformation vector from a weighting of the deformation vectors of said second set of deformation vectors with a deformation factor B i with a sum of A i and B i being substantially equal to one, and multiplying the volume elements of said second volume dataset by said attenuated deformation vectors formed from said second set of deformation vectors, said first and second sets of intermediate volume datasets containing pairs of corresponding intermediate volume datasets respectively in said first and second sets of intermediate volume datasets; producing a set of dissolve volume datasets by, for a first of said pairs of corresponding intermediate datasets, multiplying a first intermediate volume dataset in the first of said pairs by a factor k=(1−A i ) to obtain a first product and multiplying a second intermediate volume dataset in the first of said pairs by a factor k′=(1−B i ) to obtain a second product and adding said first and second products to obtain a first of said dissolve volume datasets, and for a second of said pairs of corresponding intermediate volume datasets, multiplying a first intermediate volume dataset in said second of said pairs by a factor m=(1−k) to obtain a third product and multiplying a second intermediate volume dataset in said second of said pairs by a factor m′=(1−k′) to obtain a fourth product and adding said third and fourth products to obtain a second of said dissolve volume datasets; sorting said dissolve volume datasets according to increasing A i to obtain a sequence; and displaying said dissolve volume datasets in said sequence.