Automated methods and systems for vascular plaque detection and analysis
AssigneeIschem Corporation
InventorsJoel T. Huizenga, Russell W. Anderson, Thomas Woodley Botherton
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Abstract
Automated methods and systems for the detection and analysis of plaque in one or more regions of a patient's vasculature are described.
Claims13
A fully automated method of classifying plaque components to determine whether a blood vessel contains plaque, the method comprising computationally processing at least a first processable data type and a second processable data type obtained using at least one non-invasive medical imaging system in order to analyze at least one cross section of a blood vessel of a patient's vasculature using a plurality of stored tissue classifier elements developed using statistical modeling to determine if the blood vessel comprises at least one tissue correlated with the presence of plaque, in which event the blood vessel is determined to contain plaque, wherein the fully automated method does not require human intervention and wherein at least one of the first and second processable data types is processable magnetic resonance data generated by an MRI instrument.
A fully automated method for determining whether a blood vessel of a patient contains plaque, comprising:
- a. obtaining processable data of at least one cross section of a blood vessel of a patient's vasculature, wherein the processable data are derived from raw data collected using a non-invasive medical imaging system that comprises an MRI instrument, wherein the processable data comprises at least a first processable magnetic resonance data type and a second processable magnetic resonance data type generated by an MRI instrument;
- and
- b. communicating the processable data to a computer configured to receive and computationally process the processable data using statistical classifiers developed using statistical modeling to determine whether the blood vessel in a region of the cross section(s) comprises at least one tissue correlated with the presence of plaque, in which event the blood vessel is determined to contain plaque;
- wherein the computational processing and determination of whether the blood vessel contains plaque does not require human intervention.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.