In medical imaging system a patient is injected with a radiopharmaceutical spontaneously emitting positrons and a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan is taken along parallel planes of a portion of the subject's body to produce a slice image composed of pixels arranged in a pattern. The intensity of each pixel is automatically, in a computer system, converted to digital data. The computer system then normalizes the pixels of the slice as to location by calculating the location of each pixel in an ideal or normal slice. The computer system then calculates a Z transform, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, compared to the slices from a normal group to obtain a topographic color-coded map showing the degree of abnormality at each pixel location.
STATISTICAL BASED DISPLAY FOR POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY SCANS