Medical imaging method and apparatus

An image processing apparatus for generating an image from volumetric data includes processing circuitry configured to: obtain a volumetric data set; obtain a heterogeneity map based on the volumetric data set; determine positions of a set of non-periodic sampling points using the heterogeneity map; generate from the volumetric data set a set of sampled data values based on the determined positions of the non-periodic sampling points; and generate an image data set by performing an aggregation process to generate a set of image data points from the set of sampled data values.