System and method of generating a color-coded image demonstrating blood flow
AssigneeScripps Clinic Medical Group, Inc.
InventorDavid Vu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and a system of generating a color-coded image demonstrating blood flow in a chosen area in a patient, specifically for diagnosing medical conditions like ischemia, strokes and infarcts. A plurality of images, preferably 3, are taken at different points in time that are a few seconds apart, and colorized by different colors, preferably a first image red, a second image blue and a third image green. These colorized images are then aligned and summated to create a multicolor image that time encodes perfusion of blood. Preferably, said method is performed after injection of a contrast agent.
Claims28
A method of generating a color-coded multicolor image demonstrating blood flow in a chosen area in a patient, said method comprising:
- i) taking a first image at a first point in time;
- ii) taking a second image at a second point in time that is later than the first point in time;
- iii) coloring the first image by a first color to create a first colorized image;
- iv) coloring the second image by a second color to create a second colorized image;
- v) aligning the first and the second colorized images so that the first and second colorized images are congruent;
- vi) summating the congruently aligned first and second colorized images to create a multicolor image showing colors created by the summation of the first and second color.
A system for taking and processing images for demonstrating blood flow in a chosen area in a patient by generating a color-coded multicolor image demonstrating such blood flow, said system comprising:
- an imaging device configured to take images of the chosen area in a patient including at least a first image at a first point in time and a second image at a second point in time, wherein the first and second points in time are set apart by 1 s-10 s;
- a computer programmed to:
- color the first image with a first color to create a first colorized image and the second image with a second color to create a second colorized image;
- align the first and the second colorized images so that the first and second colorized images are congruent;
- and
- summate the congruently aligned first and second colorized images generating a multicolor image showing colors created by the summation of the first and second color;
- and
- a display device displaying the multicolor image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.