Computer-aided detection system utilizing temporal analysis as a precursor to spatial analysis

A method for computer-aided detection in a four-dimensional series of medical images, the method comprising the following steps:

• (a) accessing a series of three dimensional medical images of a region of interest over a period of time, at least one set in the series being taken before administration of a contrast agent and a plurality of sets taken after the administration of a contrast agent to produce a four dimensional image;
• (b) selecting a first scale space for processing the images and, for each of the images in the series;
• (c) performing a temporal analysis to characterize each voxel in the four dimensional image
• (d) performing a spatial analysis based on the temporal characterization to segment the voxels into at least one tissue type;
• (e) selecting a new scale space and repeating steps (c-d) over a range of scale spaces.

A computer program for computer-aided detection in a four-dimensional series of medical images comprising:

• at least one machine readable medium;
• computer code stored on the at least one machine readable medium including code for the following steps:
• (a) accessing a series of three dimensional medical images of a region of interest over a period of time, at least one set in the series being taken before administration of a contrast agent and a plurality of sets taken after the administration of a contrast agent to produce a four dimensional image;
• (b) performing a temporal analysis to characterize each voxel in the four dimensional image
• (c) performing a spatial analysis based on the temporal characterization and spatial attributes in the image to segment the voxels into tissue types and to identify voxels of interest.