Method and MRT apparatus for evaluation of a cinematographic image series of the heart

A magnetic resonance tomography apparatus for evaluating a cinematographic image series of a heart during a heart cycle thereof, comprising:

• a magnetic resonance image acquisition unit adapted to interact with a subject to acquire a cinematographic short axis image series of a heart of the subject beating through a heart cycle, using an image acquisition modality that causes healthy heart muscle tissue to be represented in said image series in a manner differentiatable from damaged heart muscle tissue, said image series being comprised of a plurality of individual images;
• a processor configured to process at least two of said individual images by executing a pattern recognition algorithm to detect, in each individual image, at least one region, as a detected region, consisting of both a region of healthy heart muscle and a region of damaged heart muscle, and to differentiate between said region of healthy heart muscle and said region of damaged heart muscle and, within the detected region of each of said two of said individual images, to automatically measure a radial diameter of only said region of healthy heart muscle;
• said processor being configured to automatically detect a dynamic change of said radial diameter of said region of healthy heart muscle in said at least two of said individual images in said image series;
• and
• a display connected to said processor, automatically generating medically-relevant information based on said dynamic change of said radial diameter of said region of healthy heart muscle and making said medically-relevant information available at said display.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with program data leadable into a control and data processing computer of a magnetic resonance tomography apparatus for causing said apparatus to:

• acquire a cinematographic short axis image series of a heart beating through a heart cycle with an image acquisition unit of the apparatus using an image acquisition modality that causes healthy heart muscle tissue to be represented in said image series in a manner differentiatable from damaged heart muscle tissue, said image series being comprised of a plurality of individual images;
• process at least two of said individual images by executing a pattern recognition algorithm in a data processor of the apparatus, to detect, in each individual image, at least one region, as a detected region, consisting of both a region of healthy heart muscle and a region of damaged heart muscle and to differentiate between said region of healthy heart muscle and said region of damaged heart muscle and, within the detected region of each of said two of said individual images, to automatically electronically measure a radial diameter of only said region of healthy heart muscle;
• automatically electronically detect a dynamic change of said radial diameter of said region of healthy heart muscle in said at least two of said individual images in said image series;
• and
• automatically electronically generate medically-relevant information based on said dynamic change of said radial diameter of said region of healthy heart muscle and make said medically-relevant information available in a humanly perceptible form.