Patent ID: 7333643

Claim:
A method of assessing a viability of human heart tissue, comprising: providing two or more images of heart tissue from a human heart to a computer system; dividing at least two of the images into a plurality of sections, comprising: creating endocardial and epicardial left ventricle wall boundaries; automatically segmenting at least a portion of left ventricle wall endocardial boundaries of at least two of the provided images of heart tissue into a selected number of endocardial left ventricle wall points; automatically segmenting at least a portion of left ventricle wall epicardial boundaries of at least two of the provided images of heart tissue into a selected number of epicardial left ventricle wall points; and automatically using endocardial left ventricle wall points and epicardial left ventricle wall points to create a model of at least a portion of the left ventricle wall over one or more periods of time; assigning a value to at least one of the sections of the model, wherein the value is a function of a feature of the section; and using the value of at least one of the sections to assess viability of human heart tissue in or proximate to at least one of the sections with an assigned value.