Auto-scaling of parametric images

A diagnostic system including:

• a microprocessor configured for:
• providing a parametric map including a plurality of parameter values each one characterizing a corresponding location of the body-part,
• determining a saturation value partitioning an ordered sequence of processing parameter values, corresponding to processing locations into a first subset and a second subset consisting of a number of the processing parameter values being determined according to a predefined auto-scaling percentage,
• generating an auto-scaled map including, for each processing location, an auto-scaled value being equal to:
• a) the corresponding processing parameter value if included in the second subset, or
• b) the saturation value if the corresponding processing parameter value is included in the first subset,
• determining at least one statistical indicator of at least one distribution of a plurality of the auto-scaled values corresponding to analysis locations included in the processing locations, and
• configured for displaying a representation of said at least one statistical indicator on a monitor or on a print-out to provide an indication of a condition of an analysis region of the body-part defined by the analysis locations.

A configuration method for configuring a diagnostic system, comprising:

• providing a parametric map including a plurality of parameter values each one characterizing a corresponding location of the body-part,
• determining a saturation value partitioning an ordered sequence of processing parameter values, corresponding to processing locations into a first subset and a second subset consisting of a number of the processing parameter values being determined according to a predefined auto-scaling percentage,
• generating an auto-scaled map including, for each processing location, an auto-scaled value being equal to:
• a) the corresponding processing parameter value if included in the second subset, or
• b) the saturation value if the corresponding processing parameter value is included in the first subset,
• determining at least one statistical indicator of at least one distribution of a plurality of the auto-scaled values corresponding to analysis locations included in the processing locations,
• wherein the configuration method includes the steps of:
• providing a plurality of sample parametric maps being acquired with different scanners and/or settings thereof, each sample parametric map including a plurality of sample parameter values each one characterizing a corresponding sample location of a sample body-part corresponding to said body-part, and
• determining the auto-scaling percentage according to the sample parametric maps.

A configuration method for configuring a diagnostic system including:

• providing a parametric map including a plurality of parameter values each one characterizing a corresponding location of the body-part,
• determining a saturation value partitioning an ordered sequence of processing parameter values, corresponding to processing locations into a first subset and a second subset consisting of a number of the processing parameter values being determined according to a predefined auto-scaling percentage,
• generating an auto-scaled map including, for each processing location, an auto-scaled value being equal to:
• a) the corresponding processing parameter value if included in the second subset, or
• b) the saturation value if the corresponding processing parameter value is included in the first subset,
• determining a plurality of statistical parameters from the auto-scaled values corresponding to the analysis locations included in the processing locations,
• displaying an indication of the respective values of the statistical parameters in a graph having a visualization dimension for each statistical parameter,
• providing a knowledge base storing an indication of at least one set of respective reference ranges for the statistical parameters, each set of reference ranges being indicative of a corresponding estimated condition of the body-part,
• retrieving the at least one set of reference ranges from the knowledge base, and
• displaying a representation of the at least one set of reference ranges in the graph,
• the method including the steps of:
• providing a plurality of sample parametric maps being acquired with different scanners and/or settings thereof, each sample parametric map including a plurality of sample parameter values each one characterizing a corresponding sample location of a sample body-part corresponding to said body-part, wherein the sample parametric maps include a plurality of subsets of the sample parametric maps each one for a different estimated condition of the sample body-part,
• determining the auto-scaling percentage according to the sample parametric maps;
• determining a sample saturation value for each sample parametric map, the sample saturation value partitioning an ordered sequence of the sample parameter values of the sample parametric map into a first sample subset and a second sample subset consisting of a number of the sample parameter values being determined according to the auto-scaling percentage,
• generating a plurality of sample auto-scaled maps each one of the plurality of sample auto-scaled maps generated from a corresponding sample parametric map, each one of the plurality of sample auto-scaled maps including, for each sample location of the sample body-part, a sample auto-scaled value being equal to:
• a) the corresponding sample parameter value of the sample parametric map if included in the second sample subset, or
• b) the sample saturation value if the corresponding sample parameter value of the sample parametric map is included in the first subset,
• calculating a plurality of sample statistical parameter values of the distribution of the sample auto-scaled values of each sample auto-scaled map, and
• calculating the set of reference ranges of each estimated condition from the sample statistical parameter values of the corresponding subset of sample parametric maps.

A diagnostic method for analyzing a body-part of a patient, the diagnostic method including the steps of:

• administering a contrast agent to the patient,
• applying an interrogation signal to the body-part,
• acquiring a sequence of input maps each one including a plurality of input values each one indicative of a response to the interrogating signal of a corresponding location of the body-part, wherein a parametric function is associated with the sequence of input values of each location, a parametric map including a plurality of parameter values each one characterizing a corresponding location of the body-part is calculated by setting each parameter value according to the corresponding parametric function, and the parametric map is processed by:
• determining a saturation value partitioning an ordered sequence of processing parameter values, corresponding to processing locations into a first subset and a second subset consisting of a number of the processing parameter values being determined according to a predefined auto-scaling percentage,
• generating an auto-scaled map including, for each processing location, an auto-scaled value being equal to:
• a) the corresponding processing parameter value if included in the second subset, or
• b) the saturation value if the corresponding processing parameter value is included in the first subset,
• determining at least one statistical indicator of at least one distribution of a plurality of the auto-scaled values corresponding to selected analysis locations included in the processing locations,
• displaying a representation of said at least one statistical indicator, and
• evaluating a condition of an analysis region of the body-part defined by the analysis locations according to the representation of said at least one statistical indicator.