SPATIOTEMPORAL FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR MOTION ANALYSIS WITH VELOCITY DATA

Disclosed is a method for nonrigid cyclic motion analysis using a series of images covering the cycle, acquired, for example, from phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging. The method is based on fitting a global spatiotemporal finite element mesh model to motion data samples of an extended region at all time frames. A spatiotemporal model is composed of time-varying finite elements, with the nonrigid motion of each characterized by a set of Fourier harmonics. The model is suitable for accurately modeling the kinematics of a cyclically moving and deforming object with complex geometry, such as that of the myocardium. The model has controllable built-in smoothing in space and time for achieving satisfactory reproducibility in the presence of noise. Motion data measured, with PC MRI for example, can be used to quantify motion and deformation by fitting the model to data.