APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING MYOCARDIAL IRON CONTENT USING BLACK-BLOOD MAGNETIC RESONANCE DATA

摘要

Methods and apparatus are described for detecting myocardial iron content using black-blood magnetic resonance imaging data. In one arrangement a method comprises fitting contours to the epicardial and endocardial margins of the left ventricle in the imaging data;creating a binary map by segmenting voxels of the imaging data according to whether the voxel values are above or below a threshold, the threshold being chosen so as to distinguish between blood and ventricular tissue;using the created binary map and the fitted contours to identify the portion of the tissue between the fitted contours corresponding to the interventricular septum; and detecting myocardial iron content by performing T2* measurements on a portion of the imaging data corresponding to the identified interventricular septum.