Patent ID: 8848996

Claim:
A system for generating medical image data representing smaller vessels including capillaries of a region of patient anatomy, comprising: at least one repository for storing data representing a plurality of temporally sequential individual difference images of vessels of a region of interest of patient anatomy derived by subtracting data representing a first mask image acquired in the absence of contrast agent from individual images of temporally sequential individual images acquired in the presence of contrast agent; an image data processor for, identifying pixels of larger vessels in individual images of said difference images, said larger vessels having a size exceeding a predetermined threshold size; generating an enhanced visualization small vessel image comprising substantially peak luminance values of individual pixels exclusive of pixels of the identified larger vessels, and a peak luminance value of an individual pixel is generated in response to a peak luminance value of luminance values of pixels, spatially corresponding to said individual pixel and present in images comprising said plurality of temporally sequential individual difference images; and an output processor for providing said substantially peak luminance values representing said enhanced visualization small vessel image to a destination.