Myocardial wall thickness and thickening from gated magnetic resonance images

A minimum distance method for measuring myocardial thickness and thickening which is applicable to high resolution gated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images, and which utilizes much of the resolution present in the original image, is described. Preliminary results indicate this method may offer some advantages over existing methods because of its ability to deal with small regions of high curvature. The method is applicable to short axis, transaxial, or long axis images, and produces an easy to interpret graphical display of myocardial thickness or thickening