Noninvasive medical imaging system and method for the identification and 3-D display of atherosclerosis and the like

A method for noninvasive display of a mammalian soft tissue live body part using information obtained from multiple image slices produced by a body scan such as MRI and PET comprising the following steps:

• produce multiple sequenced image slices by noninvasively scanning a mammalian body;
• segment the entire scene represented by the image slices and identify the boundary of said soft tissue body part;
• extract said body part by extracting a region enclosed within said boundary;
• cluster the different soft tissue types of interest in said soft tissue body part;
• and
• create a data base for the different soft tissue types including their location and volume in contrasting delineation for displaying on a graphics display station whereby said display shows an extracted view of said body part with said different soft tissues shown delineated in their volumetric quantities and shape at the correct location in said body part.

A noninvasive imaging system for the 3-D display of atherosclerosis of a living human blood vessel using information obtained from multiple image slices produced by a MRI body scan comprising:

• an electronic digital storage means for storing said information;
• a computer processing means for processing said information from said storage means;
• a graphics display station means for displaying a 3-D image resulting from said processed information;
• said computer processing means including:
• means for taking multiple sequenced image slice sets wherein each set includes three images representing proton emphasis, T.sub.1 emphasis and T.sub.2 emphasis and normalizing the images so that they represent a common intensity,
• means for segmenting said normalized image for delineating the boundary of and extracting said living human blood vessel;
• classification means for using unsupervised clustering with no a priori knowledge to define the label lipid tissue, fibrous tissue and calcified tissue and assign different colors to each tissue;
• and
• means for creating a 3-D data base for the tissue types including their location and volume in different colors for displaying on said graphics display stations whereby said display shows a 3-D extracted view of the vessel with said lipid tissue, fibrous tissue and calcified tissue, to the extent present, shown in different colors in their volumetric quantities and shape at the correct location in said vessel.