Patent Document ID: 20110211743
Application ID: 11685758
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for assessing the amount of change of an object in a longitudinal series of medical images consisting of the following steps performed at each imaging time point: a. a human operator using a tool for defining a boundary region completely inside the object being assessed; b. a human operator using a tool for defining a boundary region completely outside the object being assessed; c. a human operator using a tool for identifying corresponding landmarks surrounding the object being assessed; d. a computational analysis producing signal intensity distribution descriptive statistics for inside and outside the object being assessed; e. obtaining the point spread function, signal to noise ratio, and other characteristics of the acquisition device; f. the computation of object boundary regions using an edge detector utilizing knowledge of inside/outside object statistics and acquisition device characteristics; g. the calculation of a set of surfaces that exist between the inside and outside boundaries representing only those boundaries which can be measured with high confidence; h. the calculation of a correspondence between the set of high confidence surfaces and the set of high confidence surfaces at the first imaging time point using a deformable registration method; i. the use of a rigid registration technique based on the landmarks obtained in step (c); and j. the calculation of local and global change of the object being assessed along with a calculated precision and bias.