AUTOMATED METHOD FOR GENERATION OF ARTERIAL AND VENOUS REFERENCE POINTS FOR CONTRAST-ENHANCED MAGNETIC RESONANCE ANGIOGRAPHY

摘要

A method and system for automated generation of arterial and venous reference points (points that represent arteries and veins), that can be used for segmentation of image data, is provided. Examples of image data may include, but not limited to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) data. This method includes 1) automated generation of arterial and venous dynamic enhancement reference curves (fully controlled by the software once the image data is sent for processing) in either a single or independently in multiple regions of the human body based on the analysis of time-resolved image data. 2) automated generation of multiple reference points ("seeds") for arteries and veins. 3) generation of two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) image data with soft (dependent on MR signal intensity) arterial and venous masks stored in different color channels for later enhancement or suppression using any available image viewing-editing software.