Patent Document ID: 9610043
Application ID: 13507222
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method comprising the steps of: generating a first parametric map, the first parametric map being based upon at least a portion of each of at least two optoacoustic images, each of the at least two optoacoustic images reflecting at least a portion of an optoacoustic response of a volume of tissue to a different light event, at least one of the different light events having a shorter predominant wavelength than at least one other of the different light events, the first parametric map being reflective of areas within at least a portion of the volume of tissue, which areas have a difference in absorption in response to the longer wavelength light event compared to the shorter wavelength light event; generating a second parametric map, the second parametric map being based upon at least a portion of each of the at least two optoacoustic images, the second parametric map being reflective of areas within at least a portion of the volume of tissue having stronger absorption in response to the longer and shorter wavelength light events than to other areas within the at least a portion of the volume of tissue; generating a mask reflective of a combination of information in the first parametric map and information in the second parametric map, the mask used to exclude areas of an image, the generating comprising (i) generating a mathematical function of the first parametric map to produce a Boolean value; (ii) generating a mathematical function of the second parametric map to produce a Boolean value; and (iii) combining the results of the mathematical function of the first parametric map and the mathematical function of the second parametric map by performing an intersection between the mathematical function of the first parametric map and the mathematical function of the second parametric map; generating a masked parametric map by applying the mask to an auxiliary map, thus forming a new parametric map, the auxiliary map being selected from the group consisting of: the first parametric map, the second parametric map, an additional parametric map, and an image; and outputting the masked parametric map.