Aspects of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods for medical imaging that incorporate prior knowledge. Some aspects relate to incorporating prior knowledge using a non-local means filter. Some aspects relate to incorporating prior knowledge for improved perfusion imaging, such as those incorporating arterial spin labeling.

A method is provided for detecting tumors and other lesions or structures of interest in parts of human or non-human animals without administering extrinsic contrast materials, using MRI systems that incorporate electropermanent magnets (“EPMs”). The method may include comparing of the spin decay characteristics of the tissues at the quasi-static field and the different quasi-static field to differentiate the types of tissues.

The present method is a method for executing a computational fluid analysis on a blood flow at a blood vessel region to be analyzed, and displaying the analysis results, comprising the steps of: obtaining, by a computer, a vascular diameter (d) of an inlet and/or outlet of a blood vessel region to be analyzed from medical images which include said blood vessel region; obtaining, by the computer, an estimated flow rate (Q) at the inlet and/or outlet based on the vascular diameter (d); and applying, by the computer, the estimated flow rate (Q) to a blood flow characteristics pattern of said blood vessel region and outputting blood flow characteristics at the inlet and/or outlet of the analysis object site.

Various embodiments include methods and devices for measuring blood pressure. Various embodiments may include receiving, from one or more arterial measurement sensors, a pulse waveform representing arterial pressure as a function of time for each pulse of a series of blood pressure pulses. The series of blood pressure pulses may be correlated to arterial distension at a measurement location of the arterial measurement sensors on a subject's body. One or more elevations of the measurement location may be received from one or more elevation sensors. At least one pulse in the series of pulses may be identified that represents a transitional pulse based on one or more characteristics of the at least one pulse. A diastolic blood pressure may be determined based on the at least one identified transitional pulse and elevation measurements that correspond to the one identified pulse.

Systems and methods are disclosed for assessing tissue function based on vascular disease. One method includes receiving a patient-specific anatomic model generated from patient-specific imaging of at least a portion of a patient's tissue; receiving a patient-specific vascular model generated from patient-specific imaging of at least a portion of a patient's vasculature; receiving an estimate of blood supplied to a portion of the patient-specific anatomic model; and determining a characteristic of the function of the patient's tissue using the estimate of blood supplied to the portion of the patient-specific anatomic model.

Provided is a highly reliable technique for the evaluation of ischemic conditions. A preferred embodiment is a nuclear medicine measurement protocol in which the administration of a radiopharmaceutical agent and radiation measurement are performed twice at rest and under stress. In the nuclear medicine measurement protocol, radiation collection is performed without radiopharmaceutical agent administration before the second radiopharmaceutical agent administration, and the result is used to correct the nuclear medicine measurement result after the second radiopharmaceutical agent administration.

Disclosed are devices, methods and surgical procedures for detecting, imaging, analyzing, diagnosing and/or treating vascular disorders and related conditions of the human and mammalian body in males and/or females. In particular embodiments, treatments include methods for imaging, analyzing and improving erectile dysfunction and related conditions and potentially increasing angiogenesis in response to specifically diagnosed conditions.

Some aspects of the present disclosure relate a method for magnetic resonance imaging, which can include acquiring, by applying an imaging pulse sequence, magnetic resonance data associated with a region of interest of a subject. The imaging pulse sequence can include a plurality of RF pulses configured to generate a desired image contrast, and an outer-volume suppression (OVS) module to attenuate the signal outside the region of interest. The method can further include reconstructing, from the acquired magnetic resonance data, a plurality of reduced field of view (rFOV) magnetic resonance images corresponding to the region of interest.

Systems and methods are disclosed for assessing the quality of medical images of at least a portion of a patient's anatomy, using a computer system. One method includes receiving one or more images of at least a portion of the patient's anatomy; determining, using a processor of the computer system, one or more image properties of the received images; performing, using a processor of the computer system, anatomic localization or modeling of at least a portion of the patient's anatomy based on the received images; obtaining an identification of one or more image characteristics associated with an anatomic feature of the patient's anatomy based on the anatomic localization or modeling; and calculating, using a processor of the computer system, an image quality score based on the one or more image properties and the one or more image characteristics.

A method is provided that determines velocity encoding direction of volumetric image data sets comprising three-directional velocity information (V0, V1, V2) of a target volume, which involves: a) defining a coordinate system (X, Y, Z); b) determining all the possible arrangements of the three velocity components (V0, V1, V2) along the three coordinate axes (X, Y, Z); c) determining reference point or points in the target volume either automatically or upon user input; d) determining streamlines for each point for all possible combinations of velocity components as determined in b); and e) considering as velocity encoding direction the arrangement of the three velocity components corresponding to the streamlines having the longest length or a length above a threshold.

A corresponding apparatus and computer program are also disclosed.