A method for identifying a pathological region of a scan (such as a stroke region within a MRI DWI volume scan) is proposed. A region of the scan which is likely to contain pathological tissue (e.g. infracted tissue) is identified by obtaining a parameter which, for a given slice, or portion of a slice, characterizes the distribution of the intensity of pixels, e.g. the relative proportion of high intensity pixels. In a first case, such a parameter is used to identify those slices of a volume scan which are likely to include infarction. In a second case, such a parameter (hemisphere parameter) is obtained for each of the left- and right-hemispheres of a brain, to estimate which hemisphere contains the stroke. In either case, the parameter may be calculated based on ranges, percentiles and functions of the percentiles of the intensity distribution. These ranges, percentiles and functions of the percentiles are not pre-defined but are selected to maximize sensitivity.