Method and system for automatically identifying and displaying vessel plaque views

1. A method for processing computed tomography (CT) datasets, comprising:

identifying regions of interest (ROIs) within a CT dataset, wherein the ROIs include abnormalities in a blood vessel of a patient and an anatomy indicating a plaque deposit within a vessel;

comparing the ROIs to at least one predetermined parameter;

determining a level of diagnostic importance for the ROIs with respect to each other based on the comparison, the level of diagnostic importance related to a risk associated with the abnormalities;

ranking the ROIs based on the level of diagnostic importance;

providing a list of the ROIs on a display, the list indicating the level of diagnostic importance of the ROIs, the ROIs being selectable within a user interface;

identifying a cross-sectional view indicating a greatest displacement of the plaque deposit with respect to the vessel wall; and

displaying the cross-sectional view.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying at least one image based on a selected ROI from the list as a result of a selection made within the user interface.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying at least one geometrically accurate image based on a selected ROI from the list as a result of a selection made within the user interface.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

displaying at least one geometrically accurate image based on a selected ROI from the list as a result of a selection made with the user interface; and

displaying at least a second image representative of a global representation based on the selected ROI.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ROIs comprise anatomy indicating at least one of vessels and plaque within the vessels, the ranking being based on a vulnerability associated with the plaque.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the list further comprises at least one of a bookmarked list, links displayed within a window, a pull-down menu, arrows, an anatomical model, and tabs.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

indicating a selected ROI based on an input from the user interface.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

indicating a selected ROI based on an input from the user interface, the selected ROI comprising anatomy indicating a vessel branching point having at least first and second branching vessels;

identifying an optimal viewing angle within the selected ROI indicating a greatest distance between vessel walls of at least one of the first and second branching vessels; and

displaying an optimal view based on the optimal viewing angle, the optimal view displaying a geometrically accurate representation of the selected ROI.

9. A system for processing images, comprising:

a processor identifying regions of interest (ROIs) comprising image data within a diagnostic dataset, wherein the ROIs include abnormalities in a blood vessel of a patient and an anatomy indicating a plaque deposit within a vessel;

the processor also identifying a cross-sectional view indicating a greatest displacement of the plaque deposit with respect to the vessel wall;

a prioritizing module coupled to the processor, the prioritizing module determining a vulnerability score of each of the ROIs, the prioritizing module creating a prioritized list of the ROIs based on the vulnerability score of each of the ROIs, the vulnerability score related to a risk associated with the abnormalities;

a optimal view module coupled to the processor and the prioritizing module, the optimal view module determining an optimal viewing angle for each of the ROIs based on the image data within the ROI; and

a display module for displaying the optimal viewing angle for each of the ROIs, wherein the optimal viewing angle includes the cross-sectional view.

10. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a display coupled to the processor for displaying an optimal view based on the optimal viewing angle, the optimal view providing a geometrically accurate representation of the image data within an ROI.

11. The system of claim 9 , further comprising:

a display coupled to the processor, the display displaying the prioritized list of the ROIs; and

a user interface for selecting an ROI from the prioritized list, the display displaying at least one view based on the ROI.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the image data further comprises anatomy indicating at least one of vessels and plaque within the vessels, the vulnerability score being based on at least one of a vulnerability associated with the plaque and a location of the plaque relative to surrounding anatomy within the diagnostic dataset.

13. A method for processing images, comprising:

identifying regions of interest (ROIs) comprising image data within a diagnostic dataset, wherein the ROIs include abnormalities in a blood vessel of a patient and an anatomy indicating a plaque deposit within a vessel;

determining a vulnerability score of each of the ROIs, the vulnerability score related to a risk associated with the abnormalities;

identifying a cross-sectional view indicating a greatest displacement of the plaque deposit with respect to the vessel wall;

forming a prioritized list of the ROIs based on a vulnerability score associated with each of the ROIs;

determining an optimal viewing angle for each of the ROIs based on the image data within the ROI, wherein the optimal viewing angle includes the cross-sectional view.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

bookmarking the prioritized list; and

displaying at least a portion of the prioritized list, each of the ROIs within the prioritized list being selectable with a user interface.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the image data comprises at least a vessel and a plaque deposit within the vessel, the vulnerability scores being based on a potential of the plaque deposit to dislocate from the vessel wall.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the image data comprises at least a vessel and a plaque deposit within the vessel, the optimal viewing angle being based on a greatest displacement of the plaque deposit from a vessel wall of the vessel.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the image data comprises at least a vessel and a plaque deposit within the vessel, the optimal viewing angle being based on a maximum amount of occlusion within the vessel.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the image data comprises a vessel branching point having at least first and second branching vessels, the optimal viewing angle being based on a greatest distance between vessel walls of at least one of the first and second branching vessels.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the image data comprises a vessel branching point having first and second branching vessels, the optimal viewing angle indicating a greatest distance between vessel walls of both of the first and second branching vessels.

20. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

accepting an input from the user interface indicating a selected ROI from the prioritized list;

displaying a geometrically accurate representation of the selected ROI based on the optimal viewing angle; and

displaying at least a second image based on the selected ROI, the second image being one of a global image, a planar image, a geometrically accurate image, and a 3D image.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the abnormalities include plaque deposits in the blood vessel of the patient.