Systems and methods for pulmonary ventilation from image processing

1. A method for processing images of lungs, the method comprising:

defining an inhale region of interest of the lungs at an inhale position and an exhale region of interest of the lungs at an exhale position;

determining a spatial transformation of each voxel within the lungs between the lungs at the inhale position and the lungs at the exhale position to provide displacement vector estimates for each voxel within the lungs; and

performing volume change inference operations to determine a volume change between the lungs at the inhale position and the lungs at the exhale position based on the inhale region of interest, the exhale region of interest, and the displacement vector estimates for each voxel within the lungs, the determined volume change having a quantifiable and controllable level of uncertainty.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating and displaying the processed images of the lungs including a color-gradient scale illustrating volumetric ventilation within the defined inhale region of interest of the lungs.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining the images of the lungs by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising obtaining the images of the lungs by Computed Tomography (CT).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the images of the lungs are obtained by MRI without the use of contrast agents.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the volume change inference operations include Jacobian operations.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the images of the lungs are obtained from breathhold inhale and exhale magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pairs.

8. A system comprising:

data processing hardware; and

memory hardware in communication with the data processing hardware, the memory hardware storing instructions that when executed on the data processing hardware cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising:

defining an inhale region of interest of lungs at an inhale position and an exhale region of interest of the lungs at an exhale position;

determining a spatial transformation of each voxel within the lungs between the lungs at the inhale position and the lungs at the exhale position to provide displacement vector estimates for each voxel within the lungs; and

performing volume change inference operations to determine a volume change between the lungs at the inhale position and the lungs at the exhale position based on the inhale region of interest, the exhale region of interest, and the displacement vector estimates for each voxel within the lungs, the determined volume change having a quantifiable and controllable level of uncertainty.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the operations include generating and displaying processed images of the lungs including a color-gradient scale illustrating volumetric ventilation within the defined inhale region of interest of the lungs.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the operations include obtaining the images of the lungs by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the operations include obtaining the images of the lungs by Computed Tomography (CT).

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the images of the lungs are obtained by MRI without the use of contrast agents.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the volume change inference operations include Jacobian operations.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the images of the lungs are obtained from breathhold inhale and exhale magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pairs.

15. A computer program product encoded on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

defining an inhale region of interest of lungs at an inhale position and an exhale region of interest of the lungs at an exhale position;

determining a spatial transformation of each voxel within the lungs between the lungs at the inhale position and the lungs at the exhale position to provide displacement vector estimates for each voxel within the lungs; and

performing volume change inference operations to determine a volume change between the lungs at the inhale position and the lungs at the exhale position based on the inhale region of interest, the exhale region of interest, and the displacement vector estimates for each voxel within the lungs, the determined volume change having a quantifiable and controllable level of uncertainty.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the operations include generating and displaying processed images of the lungs including a color-gradient scale illustrating volumetric ventilation within the defined inhale region of interest of the lungs.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the operations include obtaining the images of the lungs by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) without the use of contrast agents.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the operations include obtaining the images of the lungs by Computed Tomography (CT).

19. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the volume change inference operations include Jacobian operations.

20. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the images of the lungs are obtained from temporally resolved 4-dimensional (4D) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences.