Patent ID: 8532739

Claim:
A method of evaluating a potential of a global injury of tissue of a patient, comprising: electronically registering a region of interest in a first image with a corresponding region of interest in a second image obtained subsequent to the first image; electronically determining a global intensity characteristic of the region of interest based on image data from the first and second images, wherein the determining the global intensity characteristic comprises evaluating at least one of skew, kurtosis, or standard deviation of at least one property of pixels/voxels of the region of interest and/or at least one of a shape or distribution of at least one pixel/voxel intensity histogram associated with the region of interest; electronically applying an autocorrelation statistic (I) to determine a relationship between a pattern of pixel parameters within a three dimensional tissue volume of a ROI (region of interest) to evaluate whether the pattern is clustered or randomly distributed or diffuse; and electronically displaying to a user a likelihood of at least one of an actual or a potential for a global injury of tissue in the region of interest based on the determined global intensity characteristic, wherein the global injury is due to a change in tissue composition and/or function that is in a scattered, diffuse and/or randomly distributed pattern in the region of interest.