NON-INVASIVE IMAGING FOR DETERMINATION OF GLOBAL TISSUE CHARACTERISTICS

• US 20080119718A1
• Filed: 01/24/2008
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wake Forest University Health Sciences
• Original Assignee: Wake Forest University Health Sciences
• Inventors: Hamilton, Craig, Lane, Kimberly, Morgan, Tim, Torti, Frank, Hundley, William
• Granted Patent: US 8,532,739 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0036 including treatment, e.g., using an implantable medical device, ablating, ventilating
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/42 Detecting, measuring or recording for evaluating the gastrointestinal, the endocrine or the exocrine systems A61B1/00, A61B5/4857, A61B5/486, A61B5/4866, A61B5/4869 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4519 Muscles A61B5/389, A61B5/224 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/503 for diagnosis of the heart
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/504 for diagnosis of blood vessels, e.g. by angiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/506 for diagnosis of nerves
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/281 Means for the use of in vitro contrast agents G01R33/282 takes precedence; involving use of a contrast agent in MR imaging G01R33/5601; in vivo contrast agents A61K49/0002
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/56 Image enhancement or correction, e.g. subtraction or averaging techniques , e.g. improvement of signal-to-noise ratio and resolution
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/24 involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10088 Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30048 Heart; Cardiac
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0014 using an image reference approach
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/41 based on statistical description of texture

Abstract

Evaluating tissue characteristics including identification of injured tissue or alteration of the ratios of native tissue components such as shifting the amounts of normal myocytes and fibrotic tissue in the heart, identifying increases in the amount of extracellular components or fluid (like edema or extracellular matrix proteins), or detecting infiltration of tumor cells or mediators of inflammation into the tissue of interest in a patient, such as a human being, is provided by obtaining a first image of tissue including a region of interest from a first acquisition, for example, after administration of a contrast agent to the patient, and obtaining a second image of the tissue including the region of interest during a second, subsequent acquisition, for example, after administration of a contrast agent to the patient. The subsequent acquisition may be obtained after a period of time to determine if injury has occurred during that period of time. The region of interest may include heart, blood, muscle, brain, nerve, skeletal, skeletal muscle, liver, kidney, lung, pancreas, endocrine, gastrointestinal and/or genitourinary tissue. A global characteristic of the region of interest of the first image and of the second image is determined to allow a comparison of the global characteristic of the first image and the second image to determine a potential for a change in global tissue characteristics. Such a comparison may include comparison of mean, average characteristics, histogram shape, such as skew and kurtosis, or distribution of intensities within the histogram.

Claims

1. A method of evaluating a potential of a global injury of tissue of a patient, comprising:

electronically registering a region of interest in a first image with the region of interest in a second image obtained subsequent to the first image;

electronically determining a global intensity characteristic of the region of interest based on image data from the first and second images, wherein the determining the global intensity characteristic comprises evaluating at least one of skew, kurtosis, or standard deviation of at least one property of pixels/voxels of the region of interest and/or at least one of a shape or distribution of at least one pixel/voxel intensity histogram associated with the region of interest; and

electronically providing to a user a likelihood of at least one of an actual or a potential for a global injury of tissue in the region of interest based on the determined global intensity characteristic.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and the second images comprise at least one of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images, X-ray computed tomography (CT) images, ultrasound images, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images and/or positron emission tomography (PET) images.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second images comprises a plurality of MRI slices, and wherein the global intensity characteristic comprises a characteristic of substantially all of the pixels/voxels in the region of interest.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second images comprise MRI slices, and wherein electronically determining the global intensity characteristic of the region of interest includes electronically evaluating the shape or distribution of at least one pixel/voxel histogram and/or the skew of pixels/voxels of the region of interest associated with the first and second images.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the tissue in the region of interest includes at least one of heart, blood, muscle, brain, nerve, skeletal, skeletal muscle, liver, kidney, lung, pancreas, endocrine, gastrointestinal and/or genitourinary tissue.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronically determining step determines the likelihood of a future onset of global cardiac injury, and wherein the electronically providing step comprises at least one of transmitting and/or displaying the likelihood of the actual or potential for global cardiac injury to a clinician or other user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first and second images are cardiac images, wherein at least one of the first image and the second images comprise a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) image, and wherein at least the second image is taken after administration of a chemotherapeutic drug to the patient.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising weighting certain pixels/voxels from data derived from the first and/or second images to determine if there is a random or clustering pattern of high intensity pixels/voxels in the region of interest.

9. A method of evaluating a potential of a global injury of tissue of a patient comprising:

electronically evaluating image data of a region of interest in a first image and image data of the region of interest in a second image obtained after the first image;

electronically weighting the image data derived from the first and/or second images;

electronically determining if there is a scattered or distributed pattern of high intensity voxels and/or pixels in the region of interest using the weighted data; and

outputting to a user a prediction or evaluation of global injury to tissue in the region of interest based on the determined pattern of high intensity data.

10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising evaluating a global intensity characteristic of the region of interest based on data from the first and second images, wherein evaluating the global intensity characteristic comprises evaluating at least one of skew, kurtosis, or standard deviation of at least one property of pixels/voxels of the region of interest and/or at least one of a shape or distribution of at least one pixel/voxel intensity histogram associated with the region of interest.

11. A system for predicting, evaluating and/or detecting global injury in a patient, comprising:

means for electronically registering, then evaluating, a first image of tissue in a region of interest and a second image of tissue in the region of interest obtained after the first image;

means for electronically determining a global intensity characteristic of the region of interest based on data from the first and second images, wherein the determining the global intensity characteristic comprises evaluating at least one of skew, kurtosis, or standard deviation of at least one property of pixels/voxels in the region of interest and/or at least one of a shape or distribution of at least one pixel/voxel intensity histogram associated with the region of interest; and

means for electronically providing a prediction, evaluation or detection of a global injury of tissue in the region of interest to a user based on the determined global intensity characteristic.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first image and the second image comprise at least one of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) image, an X-ray computed tomography (CT) image, an ultrasound image, a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) image and/or a positron emission tomography (PET) image.

13. A system of evaluating an actual or potential of a global injury of tissue of a patient, comprising:

means for electronically comparing image data derived from a first image of tissue in a region of interest with image data derived from a second image of tissue in the region of interest obtained after the first image;

means for electronically weighting the image data derived from the first and/or second images;

means for electronically determining if there is a distributed or scattered pattern of high intensity voxels and/or pixels in the region of interest using the weighted data; and

means for outputting a prediction or evaluation of a global injury to tissue in the region of interest to a user based on the determined pattern of high intensity data.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first and second images of the region of interest include at least one of heart, blood, muscle, brain, nerve, skeletal, skeletal muscle, liver, kidney, lung, pancreas, endocrine, gastrointestinal and/or genitourinary tissue.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first and second images comprise at least one of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) image, and/or an X-ray computed tomography image, an ultrasound image, a single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) image and/or positron emission tomography (PET) image.

16. A system according to claim 13, wherein the means for outputting is configured to display histogram data associated with image intensity data of the region of interest derived from the first and second images.