Comprehensive cardiovascular analysis with volumetric phase-contrast MRI

1. A method of processing volumetric phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to evaluate the physiology of a heart and vessels, comprising:

(a) a computer obtaining said volumetric phase-contrast (MRI) data from a magnetic resonance imaging system, wherein said volumetric phase-contrast (MRI) data comprises volumetric anatomic data for a plurality of time points and vector field data for the plurality of time points;

(b) said computer correcting volumetric phase-error by at least:

calculating parameters for at least three spatial dimensions of a volumetric phase-error model that is representative of phase-offset error across the plurality of time points by at least combining volumetric-phase contrast MRI data of the plurality of time points, and applying the volumetric phase-error correction model includes applying a same set of calculated parameters of the volumetric phase-error model to said volumetric-phase contrast MRI data for each time point of the plurality of time points, and

applying the volumetric phase-error model to said volumetric-phase contrast MRI data for each time point of the plurality of time points;

(c) said computer visualizing on a display said corrected volumetric-phase contrast MRI data by superimposing said vector field data on said volumetric anatomic data;

(d) using said visualization of (c) to select and view planes in said volumetric phase-contrast (MRI) data; and

(e) using said selected planes to delineate boundaries of said heart, said vessels or a combination thereof for said computer to obtain measurements.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said volumetric phase-error correction comprises computing multiple image filters from a combination of signal intensity and said vector field data for selecting static tissue to be used in a calculation of parameters of the volumetric phase-error model.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said volumetric phase-error correction comprises selecting and excluding spatially-wrapped data from data used in a calculation of parameters of the volumetric phase-error model.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein said visualizing comprises multiplanar and volumetric field fusion.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1 , wherein using said visualization of (c) to select and view the planes in said volumetric phase-contrast (MRI) data includes causing a visualization of the vector field data to be rendered on the display relative to a set of planes.

6. A method of operation in at least one component of a medical imaging system that employs volumetric phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, the method comprising:

rendering anatomic images via a computer;

superimposing vector field data on the rendered anatomic images by the computer;

receiving at least one user input specifying a range of input values via a user interface, the at least one user input is in the form of a signal indicative of a position of a slider icon along a slider bar, the slider icon having a variable width relative to the slider bar, a variable start position in the slider bar, and a variable end position in the slider bar; and

controlling an opacity of the superimposed vector field data based at least in part on a value of the superimposed vector field data relative to the received at least one user input, wherein the opacity of the superimposed vector field is controlled to be a first opacity value as a result of the value being below the range of input values, the opacity of the superimposed vector field is controlled to be between the first opacity value and a second opacity value as a result of the value within the range of input values, the opacity of the superimposed vector field is controlled to be a second opacity value greater than the first opacity value as a result of the value being above the range of input values, a start position of the slider icon corresponding to a minimum opacity of the superimposed vector field data, and an end position of the slider icon corresponding corresponds to a maximum opacity of the superimposed vector field data.

7. The method as set forth in claim 6 , wherein receiving at least one user input via a user interface includes receiving a signal indicative of a position of a slider icon along a slider bar.

8. The method as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the position of the slider icon controls a number of parameters of a transfer function which assigns one of a plurality of colors to each voxel of a plurality of voxels based on a velocity associated with the respective voxel.

9. The method as set forth in claim 6 , wherein receiving at least one user input via a user interface includes receiving a signal indicative of a position of a slider icon along a slider bar with a variable width and start position.

10. The method as set forth in claim 6 , further comprising applying a mask based solely on signal magnitude.

11. The method as set forth in claim 6 , further comprising applying a mask based on a product of signal magnitude and speed.

12. The method as set forth in claim 6 , further comprising generating a running tabulation of a peak signal magnitude encountered in each of a plurality of volume-rendering projections.

13. The method as set forth in claim 6 , further comprising applying velocity-weighting to increase conspicuity of high-velocity data.

14. A computer that employs volumetric phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, wherein in use the computer:

renders anatomic images via a computer;

superimposes vector field data on the rendered anatomic images by the computer;

receives at least one user input specifying a range of input values via a user interface, the at least one user input is in the form of a signal indicative of a position of a slider icon along a slider bar that has a variable width and a variable start position; and

controls an opacity of the superimposed vector field data based at least in part on a value of the superimposed vector field data relative to the received at least one user input, wherein the opacity of the superimposed vector field is controlled to be a first opacity value as a result of the value being below the range of input values, the opacity of the superimposed vector field is controlled to be between the first opacity value and a second opacity value as a result of the value within the range of input values, the opacity of the superimposed vector field is controlled to be a second opacity value greater than the first opacity value as a result of the value being above the range of input values, a start position of the slider icon corresponding to a minimum opacity of the superimposed vector field data, and an end position of the slider icon corresponding corresponds to a maximum opacity of the superimposed vector field data.

15. The computer as set forth in claim 14 , which receives the at least one user input in the form of a signal indicative of a position of a slider icon along a slider bar.

16. The computer as set forth in claim 15 , wherein the position of the slider icon controls a number of parameters of a transfer function which assigns one of a plurality of colors to each voxel of a plurality of voxels based on a velocity associated with the respective voxel.

17. The computer as set forth in claim 14 , which in use further applies a mask based solely on signal magnitude.

18. The computer as set forth in claim 14 , which in use further applies a mask based on a product of signal magnitude and speed.

19. The computer as set forth in claim 14 , which in use further generates a running tabulation of a peak signal magnitude encountered in each of a plurality of volume-rendering projections.

20. The computer as set forth in claim 14 , which in use further applies velocity-weighting to increase conspicuity of high-velocity data.

21. A method of processing volumetric phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data to evaluate the physiology of a heart and vessels, comprising:

(a) a computer obtaining said volumetric phase-contrast (MRI) data from a magnetic resonance imaging system, wherein said volumetric phase-contrast (MRI) data comprises volumetric anatomic data for a plurality of time points and vector field data for the plurality of time points;

(b) said computer correcting volumetric phase-error by at least:

calculating parameters for at least three spatial dimensions of a volumetric phase-error model that is representative of phase-offset error across the plurality of time points, and

applying the volumetric phase-error model to said volumetric-phase contrast MRI data for each time point of the plurality of time points;

(c) said computer visualizing on a display said corrected volumetric-phase contrast MRI data by superimposing said vector field data on said volumetric anatomic data, visualizing including:

receiving a first input specifying a first plane for a first time point of the plurality of time points,

receiving a second input specifying a second plane for a second time point of the plurality of time points,

generating a set of planes for time points between the first time point and the second time point, and

causing a visualization of the set of planes to be rendered on the display;

(d) using said visualization of (c) to select and view planes in said volumetric phase-contrast (MRI) data; and

(e) using said selected planes to delineate boundaries of said heart, said vessels or a combination thereof for said computer to obtain measurements.

22. The method as set forth in claim 21 , wherein using said visualization of (c) to select and view the planes in said volumetric phase-contrast (MRI) data includes causing a visualization of the vector field data to be rendered on the display relative to the set of planes.

23. The method as set forth in claim 21 , wherein said volumetric phase-error correction comprises computing multiple image filters from a combination of signal intensity and said vector field data for selecting static tissue to be used in a calculation of parameters of the volumetric phase-error model.

24. The method as set forth in claim 21 , wherein said volumetric phase-error correction comprises selecting and excluding spatially-wrapped data from data used in a calculation of parameters of the volumetric phase-error model.

25. The method as set forth in claim 21 , further comprising:

applying a mask based on signal magnitude.