Patent Document ID: 9026191
Application ID: 12027335
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for automatically determining a flow of a bodily fluid within vessels of an organism by magnetic resonance, comprising the steps of: operating a magnetic resonance apparatus with a subject situated therein to implement a magnetic resonance angiography procedure to obtain a magnetic resonance angiography image of the subject in which vessels are depicted; operating said or a different magnetic resonance apparatus with the subject situated therein to implement a magnetic resonance flow measurement to generate a magnetic resonance flow image of the subject in which a flow of a bodily fluid in the subject is depicted; providing the magnetic angiography image and the magnetic resonance flow image to a computer and, in the computer, automatically executing a computerized algorithm in which the magnetic resonance angiography image is applied to the magnetic resonance flow image as a mask to produce a further image in which said vessels in the subject are depicted with said flow of the bodily fluid depicted in the vessels; and in said computerized algorithm, also automatically electronically analyzing, in said computer, said flow of said bodily fluid depicted in said vessels in said further image, by determining a speed gradient of the flow in said vessels and automatically identifying, from said speed gradient, at least one region in said vessels, selected from the group consisting of a region in said vessels wherein said speed gradient has a magnitude that is larger than a predetermined threshold, and a region in said vessels having an absence of laminar flow, and displaying said further image with said at least one region having an artificially added visual appearance that differs from the depiction of said flow of said bodily fluid depicted in said further image outside of said at least one region.