Computer Assisted Diagnosis (CAD) for the Rapid Automated Measurement of Body Fat Tissue from Whole Body MRI

This paper will examine the technical issues relating to the feasibility of using Computer Assisted Diagnosis (CAD) techniques to automatically identify, localize, and accurately measure body fat tissue from a rapid whole body MRI exam. The aim of this work is the provision of an automated system, which assesses subjects’ whole body MRI scans and which provides numerical and visual feedback to illustrate the findings. The system generates real time results allowing for an initial assessment to be performed immediately following the completion of an MRI scan. The paper will focus on the specific issues relating to the formation, volume reconstruction, image processing and analysis of the whole body images. A working system and details of a prospective investigative study of 42 volunteers will be presented.