Patent ID: 7627158

Claim:
A method of diagnostic imaging comprising: storing a first diagnostic image; storing a second diagnostic image; automatically registering the first and second diagnostic images without operator assistance, the step of registering including: converting a portion of the first and second diagnostic images corresponding to a common non-rigid organ into corresponding feature image representations indicative of boundaries of the non-rigid organ in each of the first and second diagnostic images; determining an affine transform representative of a misalignment of the first and second feature image representations, determining the affine transform including: matching pairs of points in the first and second feature image representations, and removing matched pairs of points that fail to meet preselected criteria; operating on one of the first and second diagnostic images in accordance with the determined affine transform to register the common non-rigid organ in the first and second diagnostic images; concurrently displaying a corresponding pair of slices of the first and second registered diagnostic images; and concurrently stepping the displayed slice pair to display additional corresponding slice pairs of the first and second images.