MRI post-processing systems and methods

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoding instructions which, when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to:

• determine a signal decay variance for a pixel or pixel subset of a plurality of pixels of at least one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image of at least one region of interest of a subject, the signal decay variance representing a time-variance of a decay rate of an MRI signal characterizing the pixel or pixel subset;
• generate an MRI signal decay variance map of the at least one region of interest according to determined signal decay variances characterizing the at least one MRI image;
• and
• generate a tissue degeneration indicator for the subject according to the MRI signal decay variance map.

An apparatus comprising at least one processor programmed to:

• determine a signal decay variance for a pixel or pixel subset of a plurality of pixels of at least one magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image of at least one region of interest of a subject, the signal decay variance representing a time-variance of a decay rate of an MRI signal characterizing the pixel or pixel subset;
• generate an MRI signal decay variance map of the at least one region of interest according to determined signal decay variances characterizing the at least one MRI image;
• and
• generate a tissue degeneration indicator for the subject according to the MRI signal decay variance map.