Abstract: An embodiment analyzes a body part of a patient, which patient is perfused with a contrast agent that is capable of circulating within the patient and of being substantially immobilized on a biological target. An embodiment of a corresponding system provides an echo signal that is indicative of a response over time to an interrogation signal of the body part, fits the echo signal with a time model function that models an evolution over time of the contrast agent in the body part, the time model function including a combination of a circulation function that models the circulation of the contrast agent and a decay function that models a decay of the echo signal from the immobilized contrast agent, and estimates at least one kinetics indicator of the contrast agent from the time model function.

Abstract: An input image includes a plurality of input values (i.e., pixel or voxel values), each input value indicative of a response to an interrogation signal of a corresponding location of a body-part, which possibly includes a contrast agent. At least one filtered image is generated from a plurality of selected input images and includes a filtered value for each of a plurality of selected ones of the locations. Each filtered value is indicative of the contrast agent leaving the selected location and is obtained by reducing a contribution of the contrast agent that is substantially stationary at the selected location along the selected input images for a period of time equal to or shorter than a first threshold and by reducing a contribution of the contrast agent that is substantially stationary for a period of time equal to or longer than a second higher threshold.

Abstract: An image registration method for use in medical imaging includes the steps of: providing a sequence of images each one including a digital representation of a body-part under analysis, selecting a reference image within the sequence, the remaining images of the sequence defining moving images, and re-aligning at least one portion of a moving image with respect to the reference image. The step of re-aligning may include: defining a delimitation mask identifying a region on the reference image with which the at least one portion of the moving image has to be re-aligned, and a feature mask identifying a further region on the reference image within which the re-alignment is calculated, determining an optimized transformation for compensating a displacement of the moving image with respect to the reference image by optimizing a similarity measure, and transforming the at least one portion of the moving image according to the optimized transformation.

Abstract: An embodiment of a solution is proposed for analyzing a body part of a patient, which is perfused with a contrast agent capable of circulating within the patient and of being substantially immobilized on a biological target. An embodiment of a corresponding system includes means for providing an echo signal indicative of a response over time to an interrogation signal of the body part, means for associating the echo signal with a model function of time modeling an evolution over time of the contrast agent in the body part, the model function including a combination of a circulation function modeling the circulation of the contrast agent and a decay function modeling a decay of the echo signal from the immobilized contrast agent, and means for estimating at least one kinetics indicator of the contrast agent from the model function.

Abstract: An embodiment of a solution is proposed for imaging a body-part that is perfused with a contrast agent. A corresponding method includes the step of providing a sequence of input images (for example, acquired with an ultrasound scanner); the input images offer a digital representation over time of the body-part. Each input image includes a plurality of input values (i.e., pixel or voxel values); each input value is indicative of a response to an interrogation signal (such as an echo signal for ultrasound waves) of a corresponding location of the body-part, which possibly includes the contrast agent. The method further includes the step of generating at least one filtered image from a plurality of selected ones of the input images (such as all of them or a subset thereof). Each filtered image includes a filtered value for each of a plurality of selected ones of the locations (for example, in a region of interest, or ROI).

Abstract: An image registration method for use in medical imaging is proposed. The method includes the steps of: providing a sequence of images each one including a digital representation of a body-part under analysis, selecting a reference image within the sequence, the remaining images of the sequence defining moving images, and re-aligning at least one portion of a moving image with respect to the reference image. The step of re-aligning includes: defining a delimitation mask identifying a region on the reference image with which the at least one portion of the moving image has to be re-aligned, and a feature mask identifying a further region on the reference image within which the re-alignment is calculated, determining an optimized transformation for compensating a displacement of the moving image with respect to the reference image by optimizing a similarity measure, and transforming the at least one portion of the moving image according to the optimized transformation.