Patent Document ID: 8731256
Application ID: 12747816
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, comprising: a magnetic resonance imaging scanner configured to generate a plurality of signals for forming at least one magnetic resonance image of a soft tissue region from a subject under observation, wherein said at least one magnetic resonance image provides at least one integrating feature to facilitate automatic segmentation; a signal processing system in communication with said magnetic resonance imaging scanner to receive said plurality of signals; and a data storage unit in communication with said signal processing system, wherein said data storage unit contains at least one template corresponding to said soft tissue region, wherein said signal processing system is adapted to process said plurality of signals received from said magnetic resonance imaging scanner to automatically perform segmentation for said soft tissue region of said subject under observation by utilizing said at least one template and said at least one integrating feature, wherein performing said segmentation further comprises: transferring segmentation data from the at least one template to the at least one magnetic resonance image using a three-dimensional diffeomorphic transformation; and performing segmentation using the transferred segmentation data.