Abstract: The invention relates to a general composite compartmental model and a compartmental analysis procedure to extract non-invasively the concentration (Cp) of the imaging agent in plasma (301), in metabolites (304, 504) and in blood elements (303) (like red cells, platelets, plasma protein etc.) from time signal curves measured within a reference tissue region (200). This is made possible by deploying an injection function (SINJ(t)) as input which models the amount of imaging agent administered to the patient as a function of time. The invention allows the presentation of the plasma input function to the medical practitioner without the need for invasively drawing blood samples.

Abstract: The invention relates to a general composite compartmental model and a compartmental analysis procedure to extract non-invasively the concentration (Cp) of the imaging agent in plasma (301), in metabolites (304, 504) and in blood elements (303) (like red cells, platelets, plasma protein etc.) from time signal curves measured within a reference tissue region (200). This is made possible by deploying an injection function (SINJ(t)) as input which models the amount of imaging agent administered to the patient as a function of time. The invention allows the presentation of the plasma input function to the medical practitioner without the need for invasively drawing blood samples.

Abstract: Methods and systems for interworking in messaging systems are described. An event store can be accessible by different dispatchers associated with different message servers. The dispatchers may be co-located with the event store or non co-located with the event store.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method of combining multiple binary cluster maps into a single cluster map; where each respective binary cluster map represents characteristic information and the single cluster map represent the sum of the characteristic information. Initially, each respective binary cluster map is assigned with a reliability factor for indicating the reliability of the binary cluster map. These factor values are then used to determine a reliability vector comprising reliability factor elements, where each respective reliability factor element is associated to certain cluster map area in the single cluster map and indicates the reliability of cluster map are. In that way, the single cluster map can be viewed with respect to the reliability.

Abstract: This relates to a method of automatically selecting preferred voxels from a group of voxels for pharmacokinetic modeling of a biological system, where the voxels contain data points indicating a change of activity-levels over time. For each respective voxel the changes of the data points over time with at least one noise level value, where the comparing is performed in accordance to a pre-defined selection rule. Then, those voxels where the result of the comparing obeys the selection rule are then selected as preferred voxels.

Abstract: This system (200), apparatus (300), and method (100) of the present invention provide an analytic way to solve the (input) estimation problem of pharmacokinetic modeling: estimating parameters of a kinetic model from a series of tracer (radioactively labeled imaging agent) activity measurements (e.g. by positron emission tomography). Since the model describes a biological process its parameters have a direct functional interpretation (e.g. hypoxia for the tracer FMISO) that can be of diagnostic value. The measurements represent the activity distribution in time and space in the form of a 4D data set d(t, x, y, z), t=1, . . . , T. The kinetic parameter estimation procedure (205) requires knowledge of the tracer input activity. This input activity can either be measured invasively or it can be estimated from the data in a preprocessing step. The estimation problem can be solved efficiently if the model and its input are described analytically.

Abstract: The invention relates to the estimation of kinetic parameters for a target region (210) utilizing information from a normal (unperturbed) reference region (200). The proposed compartmental model models metabolic pathways for blood, reference and target tissue. The proposed analysis procedure features two alternatives: (A) Extraction of the plasma input in the reference region (200) and its unperturbed kinetic parameters, hereafter utilization of the plasma input and the kinetic parameters of the reference region as initial parameters for the analysis of the target region (210). (B) The system of kinetic equations describing the kinetics of the imaging agent in the target and reference regions is solved for the input function (amount of free imaging agent in the plasma or the total imaging agent SB(t) contained in plasma, blood elements and metabolites) considered to be the same for both regions.

Abstract: The invention relates to a data processing system (1) for the evaluation of image data, particularly of PET-images (I), that represent the time varying concentration of a tracer substance like F-MISO in an object (20). The data processing system (1) comprises a library module (48) with analytical solutions (Cj(t)) for several compartment models. Preferably the library also contains the analytical gradients with respect to the parameters of interest. From the library an appropriate solution for each study can be chosen by a user. The use of analytical functions together with the information about the error (?A(t)) of the input data (either via noise models 43 or via a simulation 44) allows to extract all parameters mandatory to fully understand the kinetics of complex models (more than one tissue compartment) on a per-voxel basis in a robust way in real-time.