SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MULTI-IMAGE BASED STENT VISIBILITY ENHANCEMENT

A method for enhancing stent visibility in digital medical images includes providing a time series of 2-dimensional (2D) images of a stent in a vessel, estimating motion of the stent in a subset of images of the time series of images, estimating motion of clutter in the subset of images, where clutter comprises anatomical structures other than the stent, estimating a clutter layer in the subset of images from the estimated clutter motion, estimating a stent layer in the subset of images from the clutter layer and the estimated clutter motion, and minimizing a functional of the estimated stent motion, the estimated stent layer, the estimated clutter motion, and the estimated clutter layer to in calculate a refined stent layer image, where the refined stent layer image has enhanced visibility of the stent.