The invention relates to a method for estimating the physiological parameters defining the edema induced upon infusion of fluid from an intraparenchymally placed catheter includinga) Acquisition of patient-specific medical datab) Estimation of pertinent tissue microstructure based on the patient-specific medical data and/or generalized information derived or drawn from one or more of the following: experience, literature, modeling, studies, research, analysisc) Acquisition of information about delivery parameters, and/or delivery device geometry, and/or fluid properties, such as: delivery device trajectory, flow rate, pressure, catheter diameter, catheter profile, fluid viscosity, fluid molecular sized) Computing a field of values of predicted extracellular volume fraction over the tissue region using the information obtained in (b) and (c).According to a further aspect, the invention relates to a method of infusing or planning and/or monitoring an infusion of a contrast agent such that the distribution of such agent can be detected by means of medical data acquisition (e.g. MRI, CT, x-ray, ultrasound, SPECT, PET) and observing and/or measuring the backflow length along the catheter track.
