Determining pancreas disease using functional imaging

1 . A diagnostic method of determining a health condition of an organ of a patient, comprising:

administering a radioisotope dose to the patient, such that the organ uptakes the radioisotope and one or more other organs uptake the radioisotope;

acquiring imaging data via nuclear medicine imaging from the patient when the radioisotope dose is active in the patient;

deriving a radioisotope count uptaken by the organ and a radioisotope uptaken by one or more other organs from the acquired image data;

determining a radioisotope count perfused into the organ based on the derived radioisotope count uptaken by the organ and the derived radioisotope uptaken by the one or more other organs;

determining a functional organ volume index;

determining an individual organ function index by computing a quotient of the derived radioisotope count uptaken by the organ over the derived radioisotope count perfused into the organ;

staging a health of the organ based on the determined functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index; and

communicating the staged health of the organ to a clinician.

2 . The diagnostic method of claim 1 , wherein determining the functional organ volume index comprises deriving a concentration of the radioisotope in the organ from the acquired image data, and computing a product of the derived radioisotope count of the organ and a volume of a voxel of the image data divided by the derived concentration of the radioisotope in the organ.

3 . The diagnostic method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a differential graph of the functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index, wherein a health of the organ is staged based on a location of a coordinate of the determined functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index within one of a plurality of regions of the differential graph.

4 . The diagnostic method of claim 1 , wherein staging the function of the organ comprises selecting one of a plurality of different stages.

5 . The diagnostic method of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of different stages comprises a normal stage and at least one stage of decreased health.

6 . The diagnostic method of claim 5 , wherein the at least one stage of decreased health comprises a mild decreased health stage, a moderate decreased health stage, and a severe decreased health stage.

7 . The diagnostic method of claim 1 , further comprising:

repeating the radioisotope administering, image data acquisition, and acquired image data analyzing steps to determine a plurality of functional organ volume indices and plurality of individual organ function indices;

generating a differential graph of the determined plurality of functional organ volume indices and the determined plurality of individual organ function indices;

determining a trajectory based on locations of coordinates of the determined plurality of functional organ volume indices and the determined plurality of individual organ function indices in the differential graph;

determining an organ disease prognosis of the patient based on the determined trajectory; and

communicating the determined organ disease prognosis to the clinician.

8 . The diagnostic method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining an individual organ reserve index from the determined functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index; and

communicating the determined individual organ reserve index to the clinician.

9 . The diagnostic method of claim 8 , wherein determining the individual organ reserve index comprises computing a product of the determined functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index.

10 . The diagnostic method of claim 1 , wherein the image data is acquired using a functional scanner.

11 . The diagnostic method of claim 1 , wherein the radioisotope is Technetium 99m .

12 . The diagnostic method of claim 1 , wherein the organ is a pancreas, the functional organ volume index is a functional pancreas volume index, and the individual organ function index is an individual pancreas function index.

13 . A method of treating a patient having chronic pancreatitis (CP), comprising:

performing the diagnostic method of claim 12 , wherein the health of the pancreas is staged as having CP; and

treating the CP of the pancreas based on the staged health of the pancreas.

14 . A diagnostic method of determining a health condition of an organ of a patient, comprising:

administering a radioisotope dose to the patient, such that the organ uptakes the radioisotope;

acquiring imaging data via nuclear medicine imaging from the patient when the radioisotope dose is active in the patient;

deriving a radioisotope count uptaken by the organ and a radioisotope uptaken by one or more other organs from the acquired image data;

determining a radioisotope count perfused into the organ based on the derived radioisotope count uptaken by the organ and the derived radioisotope uptaken by the one or more other organs;

determining a functional organ volume index;

determining an individual organ function index by computing a quotient of the derived radioisotope count uptaken by the organ over the derived radioisotope count perfused into the organ;

computing a product of the determined functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index;

deriving an individual organ reserve index from the product of the determined functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index; and

communicating the derived individual organ function index to a clinician.

15 . The diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein determining the functional organ volume index comprises deriving a concentration of the radioisotope in the organ from the acquired image data, and computing a product of the derived radioisotope count of the organ and a volume of a voxel of the image data divided by the derived concentration of the radioisotope in the organ.

16 . The diagnostic method of claim 14 , wherein the organ is a pancreas, the functional organ volume index is a functional pancreas volume index, the individual organ function index is an individual pancreas function index, and the individual organ reserve index is an individual pancreas reserve index.

17 . A method of treating a patient having chronic pancreatitis (CP), comprising:

performing the diagnostic method of claim 16 , wherein the derived individual organ reserve index indicates CP of the pancreas; and

treating the CP of the pancreas based on the derived individual organ reserve index.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the patient has cancer, and the method further comprises treating the cancer based on the derived individual organ reserve index.

19 . A diagnostic method of determining a health condition of an organ of a patient, comprising:

administering a radioisotope dose to the patient, such that the organ uptakes the radioisotope;

acquiring imaging data via nuclear medicine imaging from the patient when the radioisotope dose is active in the patient;

analyzing the acquired image data to determine a functional organ volume index and an individual organ function index;

generating a differential graph of the functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index;

staging a health of the organ based on a location of a coordinate of the determined functional organ volume index and the determined individual organ function index within one of a plurality of regions of the differential graph; and

communicating the staged health of the organ to a clinician.

20 . A diagnostic method of determining a health condition of an organ of a patient, comprising:

administering a radioisotope dose to the patient, such that the organ uptakes the radioisotope;

acquiring imaging data via nuclear medicine imaging from the patient when the radioisotope dose is active in the patient;

analyzing the acquired image data to determine a functional organ volume index and an individual organ function index;

repeating the radioisotope administering, image data acquisition, and acquired image data analyzing steps to determine a plurality of functional organ volume indices and plurality of individual organ function indices;

generating a differential graph of the determined plurality of functional organ volume indices and the determined plurality of individual organ function indices;

determining a trajectory based on locations of coordinates of the determined plurality of functional organ volume indices and the determined plurality of individual organ function indices in the differential graph;

determining an organ disease prognosis of the patient based on the determined trajectory; and

communicating the determined organ disease prognosis to the clinician.