Patent ID: 8854355

Claim:
A multi-energy imaging system comprising: a detector configured to receive data that can be reconstructed into a three-dimensional (3D) image of an object; and a computer programmed to: obtain 3D image data of the object, the 3D image data comprising multi-energy image data; identify an internal structure of the object via one of a blood content, a cartilage content, a bone content, and a contrast agent content; define a longitudinal dimension of the internal structure from the 3D image data along a length of the structure; extract a first set of parameter-of-interest data related to the internal structure from the 3D image data along a first ray extending from a first location along the length of the structure and at a first angular orientation with respect to a base vector that is generally perpendicular to the longitudinal dimension, the first set of parameter-of-interest data comprising an amount of plaque in the internal structure at the first location and the first angular orientation; and plot the extracted first set of parameter-of-interest data at a pixel location of a two-dimensional (2D) plot that corresponds to the first location and corresponds to the first angular orientation, wherein the 2D plot comprises a first axis corresponding to longitudinal locations along the length of the internal structure and a second axis corresponding to an angular orientation with respect to the length of the internal structure.