System and method for mapping and quantifying in-vivo blood flow stasis

A method for producing an image that depicts blood flow stasis using a medical imaging system, the steps of the method comprising:

• (a) providing a time series of images acquired with the medical imaging system, the time series of images containing flow velocity information at voxel locations in a three-dimensional volume;
• (b) segmenting at least one region-of-interest from each image in the time series of images;
• (c) calculating a velocity magnitude for each voxel in each region-of-interest;
• (d) producing a flow stasis volume by computing a relative stasis value for each voxel location in each region-of-interest by determining, at a given voxel location, a number of time frames in the time series of images having a velocity magnitude below a user-selected threshold value and normalizing the determined number of time frames at the given voxel location by a total number of time frames in the times series of images;
• and
• (e) generating an image that depicts blood flow stasis from the produced flow stasis volume.