Reconstructing the cross sections of coronary arteries from biplane angiograms

An algorithm that reconstructs the cross sections of the lumens of coronary arteries from two mutually orthogonal X-ray projections is described. The algorithm accommodates the possibility of elliptical, crescent, or star shapes. It represents each biplane projection of a transverse slice of the arterial lumen as a binary-valued image. The single-coordinate moments of these two projection images are equal to those of the slice. Since the cross-coordinate moments of the slice are not available from the projections, an algorithm to estimate these moments based on assumptions of smoothness and connectivity is developed. Once all the missing moments are estimated, the image of the slice can be estimated by inverting these moments, using the uniqueness theorem governing the relation between an image and its moments. Preliminary tests of the algorithm on synthetic data, on hardware phantoms and on a segment of a barium-enhanced in vitro coronary artery are reported.     

Assessment of diffuse coronary artery disease by quantitative analysis of coronary morphology based upon 3-D reconstruction from biplane angiograms

Quantitative evaluations on coronary vessel systems are of increasing importance in cardiovascular diagnosis, therapy planning, and surgical verification. Whereas local evaluations, such as stenosis analysis, are already available with sufficient accuracy, global evaluations of vessel segments or vessel subsystems are not yet common. Especially for the diagnosis of diffuse coronary artery diseases, the authors combined a 3D reconstruction system operating on biplane angiograms with a length/volume calculation. The 3D reconstruction results in a 3D model of the coronary vessel system, consisting of the vessel skeleton and a discrete number of contours. To obtain an utmost accurate model, the authors focussed on exact geometry determination. Several algorithms for calculating missing geometric parameters and correcting remaining geometry errors were implemented and verified. The length/volume evaluation can be performed either on single vessel segments, on a set of segments, or on subtrees. A volume model based on generalized elliptical conic sections is created for the selected segments. Volumes and lengths (measured along the vessel course) of those elements are summed up. In this way, the morphological parameters of a vessel subsystem can be set in relation to the parameters of the proximal segment supplying it. These relations allow objective assessments of diffuse coronary artery diseases.     

Three-dimensional motion tracking of coronary arteries in biplane cineangiograms

A three-dimensional (3-D) method for tracking the coronary arteries through a temporal sequence of biplane X-ray angiography images is presented. A 3-D centerline model of the coronary vasculature is reconstructed from a biplane image pair at one time frame, and its motion is tracked using a coarse-to-fine hierarchy of motion models. Three-dimensional constraints on the length of the arteries and on the spatial regularity of the motion field are used to overcome limitations of classical two-dimensional vessel tracking methods, such as tracking vessels through projective occlusions. This algorithm was clinically validated in five patients by tracking the motion of the left coronary tree over one cardiac cycle. The root mean square reprojection errors were found to be submillimeter in 93% (54/58) of the image pairs. The performance of the tracking algorithm was quantified in three dimensions using a deforming vascular phantom. RMS 3-D distance errors were computed between centerline models tracked in the X-ray images and gold-standard centerline models of the phantom generated from a gated 3-D magnetic resonance image acquisition. The mean error was 0.69 (+/- 0.06) mm over eight temporal phases and four different biplane orientations.     

Respiratory motion of the heart from free breathing coronary angiograms

Respiratory motion compensation for cardiac imaging requires knowledge of the heart's motion and deformation during breathing. This paper presents a method for measuring the natural tidal respiratory motion of the heart from free breathing coronary angiograms. A three-dimensional (3-D) deformation field describing the cardiac and respiratory motion of the coronary arteries is recovered from a biplane acquisition. A cardiac respiratory parametric model is formulated and used to decompose the deformation field into cardiac and respiratory components. Angiograms from ten patients were analyzed. A 3-D translation motion model was sufficient for describing the motion of the heart in only two patients. For all patients, the heart translated caudally (mean, 4.9+/-1.9 mm; range, 2.4 to 8.0 mm) and underwent a cranio-dorsal rotation (mean, 1.5 degrees+/-0.9 degrees; range, 0.2 degrees to 3.5 degrees) during inspiration. In eight patients, the heart also translated anteriorly (mean, 1.3+/-1.8 mm; range, -0.4 to 5.1 mm) and rotated in a caudo-dextral direction (mean, 1.2 degrees+/-1.3 degrees; range, -1.9 degrees to 3.2 degrees).     

A 3D reconstruction of vascular structures from two X-ray angiograms using an adapted simulated annealing algorithm

A three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the vessel lumen from two angiographic views, based on the reconstruction of a series of cross-sections, is proposed. Assuming uniform mixing of contrast medium and background subtraction, the cross-section of each vessel is reconstructed through a binary representation. A priori information about both the slice to be reconstructed and the relationships between adjacent slices are incorporated to lessen ambiguities on the reconstruction. Taking into account the knowledge of normal vessel geometry, an initial solution of each slice is created using an elliptic model-based method. This initial solution is then deformed to be made consistent with projection data while being constrained into a connected realistic shape. For that purpose, properties on the expected optimal solution are described through a Markov random field. To find an optimal solution, a specific optimization algorithm based on simulated annealing is used. The method performs well both on single vessels and on branching vessels possessing an additional inherent ambiguity when viewed at oblique angles. Results on 2D slice independent reconstruction and 3D reconstruction of a stack of spatially continuous 2D slices are presented for single vessels and bifurcations.     

Kinematic and deformation analysis of 4-D coronary arterial trees reconstructed from cine angiograms

In the cardiovascular arena, percutaneous catheter-based interventional (i.e., therapeutic) procedures include a variety of coronary and other vascular system interventions. These procedures use two-dimensional (2-D) X-ray-based imaging as the sole or the major imaging modality for procedure guidance and quantification of key parameters. Coronary vascular curvilinearity is one key parameter that requires a four-dimensional (4-D) format, i.e., three-dimensional (3-D) anatomical representation that changes during the cardiac cycle. A new method has been developed for reconstruction and analysis of these patient-specific 4-D datasets utilizing routine cine angiograms. The proposed method consists of three major processes: 1) reconstruction of moving coronary arterial tree throughout the cardiac cycle; 2) establishment of temporal correspondence with smoothness constraints; and 3) kinematic and deformation analysis of the reconstructed 3-D moving coronary arterial trees throughout the cardiac cycle.     

造影中冠状动脉的三维序列重建和运动估计

提出采用snake模型对多角度造影图像序列中的冠状动脉血管轴线进行三维序列重建和运动估计的方法.snake能最函数综合考虑了曲线本身的特性、图像数据以及冠脉形态和运动的先验知识,确保三维snake曲线在内外力的共同作用下,直接在空间中变形,最终停留在三维血管轴线上,从而同时完成血管轴线的三维提取、三维序列重建、运动跟踪与估计,提高了重建的精度和速度.采用临床图像的实验验证了算法的可行性.     

Object-based 3-D reconstruction of arterial trees from magnetic resonance angiograms

By exploiting a priori knowledge of arterial shape and smoothness, subpixel accuracy reconstructions are achieved from only four noisy projection images. The method incorporates a priori knowledge of the structure of branching arteries into a natural optimality criterion that encompasses the entire arterial tree. An efficient optimization algorithm for object estimation is presented, and its performance on simulated, phantom, and in vivo magnetic resonance angiograms is demonstrated. It is shown that accurate reconstruction of bifurcations is achievable with parametric models.     

Estimating the quality of stripe in structured light 3D measurement

lity of stripe image. In the method, two parameters, skewness coefficient of stripe gray distribution and the noise level, are used to estimate the quality of stripe. The simulation results show that the bigger the skewness coefficient is, the bigger the error of stripe locating results is. Meanwhile, the smaller the noise level is, the smaller the error of stripe locating results is. The method has been used to estimate the experimental image, and the same conclusion can be obtained. The method can be used for recognizing large error data automatically by the two parameters.     

Estimating joint contact areas and ligament lengths from bone kinematics and surfaces

We present a novel method for modeling contact areas and ligament lengths in articulations. Our approach uses volume images generated by computed tomography and allows the in vivo and noninvasive study of articulations. In our method, bones are modeled both implicitly (scalar distance fields) and parametrically (manifold surfaces). Using this double representation, we compute interbone distances and estimate joint contact areas. Using the same types of representation, we model ligament paths; in our model, the ligaments are approximated by the shortest paths in a three-dimensional space with bone obstacles. We demonstrate the method by applying our contact area and ligament model to the distal radioulnar joints of a volunteer diagnosed with malunited distal radius fracture in one forearm. Our approach highlights focal changes in the articulation at the distal radioulnar joint (location and area of bone contact) and potential soft-tissue constraints (increased "length" of the distal ligaments and ligament-bone impingement in the injured forearm). Results suggest that the method could be useful in the study of normal and injured anatomy and kinematics of complex joints.     

Reconstructing the 3-D medial axes of coronary arteries in single-view cineangiograms

Describes a technique for reconstructing the skeletal structure of coronary arteries from a succession of frames of a single-view cineangiogram. The authors use local features in each frame to determine correspondences of arterial segments in successive frames. They define a similarity measure in 2D image space as the change in angular coordinates of corresponding pairs. They use a form of gradient descent to find those depth coordinates that minimize the average deviation of the 3D angular coordinates of all points on the skeleton from the coordinates produced by a 3D scaling transformation. In experiments with software models the reconstruction error was approximately two pixels when the initial guessed reconstruction was as large as 30 pixels.     

A knowledge-based approach for 3-D reconstruction and labeling of vascular networks from biplane angiographic projections

An approach to the three-dimensional reconstruction of coronary arteries is presented. The principal objective is to show how modeling of a vascular network, together with algorithmic procedures, can lead to accurate 3-D structure and feature labeling. The labeling problem is stated directly within the 3-D reconstruction framework. The reconstruction ambiguities inherent to biplane techniques are solved by means of a knowledge base, modeling of the object, and heuristic rules. Feasibility in near-real situations has been demonstrated. The critical importance of the object 3-D reference to achieving the data and modeling matching is emphasized, and a way to deal with it is pointed out. The overall system implies an incremental development in methodologies and experiments. All of them have been elaborated and tested independently, and the most appropriate ones have been selected for integration into a modular system. All the stages of the process (calibration, segmentation, reconstruction, and display) are discussed, with the main focus on modeling. Examples of automatic reconstruction from a phantom are provided.     

Reconstruction of coronary arteries from a single rotational X-ray projection sequence

Cardiovascular diseases remain the primary cause of death in developed countries. In most cases, exploration of possibly underlying coronary artery pathologies is performed using X-ray coronary angiography. Current clinical routine in coronary angiography is directly conducted in two-dimensional projection images from several static viewing angles. However, for diagnosis and treatment purposes, coronary artery reconstruction is highly suitable. The purpose of this study is to provide physicians with a three-dimensional (3-D) model of coronary arteries, e.g., for absolute 3-D measures for lesion assessment, instead of direct projective measures deduced from the images, which are highly dependent on the viewing angle. In this paper, we propose a novel method to reconstruct coronary arteries from one single rotational X-ray projection sequence. As a side result, we also obtain an estimation of the coronary artery motion. Our method consists of three main consecutive steps: 1) 3-D reconstruction of coronary artery centerlines, including respiratory motion compensation; 2) coronary artery four-dimensional motion computation; 3) 3-D tomographic reconstruction of coronary arteries, involving compensation for respiratory and cardiac motions. We present some experiments on clinical datasets, and the feasibility of a true 3-D Quantitative Coronary Analysis is demonstrated.     

Binary reconstruction of the heart chambers from biplane angiographic image sequences

The aim of this work is the three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of the left or right heart chamber from digital biplane angiograms. The approach used, the binary reconstruction, exploits the density information of subtracted ventriculograms from two orthogonal views in addition to the ventricular contours. The ambiguity of the problem is largely reduced by incorporating a priori knowledge of human ventricles. A model-based reconstruction program is described that is applicable to routinely acquired biplane ventriculographic studies. Prior to reconstruction, several geometric and densitometric imaging errors are corrected. The finding of corresponding density profiles and anatomical landmarks is supported by a biplane image pairing procedure that takes the movement of the gantry system into account. Absolute measurements are based on geometric isocenter calibration and a slice-wise density calibration technique. The reconstructed ventricles allow 3-D visualization and regional wall motion analysis independently of the gantry setting. The method is applied to clinical angiograms and tested in left- and right-ventricular phantoms yielding a well shape conformity even with few model information. The results indicate that volumes of binary reconstructed ventricles are less projection-dependent compared to volume data derived by purely contour-based methods. A limitation is that the heart chamber must not be superimposed by other dye-filled structures in both projections.     

Displacement and velocity of the coronary arteries: cardiac and respiratory motion

This paper presents measurements of three-dimensional (3-D) displacements and velocities of the coronary arteries due to the myocardial beating motion and due to breathing. Data were acquired by reconstructing the coronary arteries and their motion from biplane angiograms in 10 patients. A parametric motion model was used to separate the cardiac and breathing motion fields. The arteries move consistently toward the left, inferior, and anterior during a cardiac contraction. The displacement and velocity of the right coronary artery during a cardiac contraction was larger than measured for the left coronary tree. Cardiac motion dominates the respiratory motion of the coronary arteries during spontaneous breathing. On inspiration, the arteries move caudally, but the motion in the left-right and anterior-posterior axes was variable. Spatial variation in respiratory displacement and velocity of the coronary arteries indicates that the breathing motion of the heart is more complex than a 3-D translation.     

基于LVE和ARG算法的冠状动脉分割

为克服传统区域生长方法中容易发生的欠分割和过分割现象,引入局部图像分析技术,设定一系列感兴趣区域(ROI),对冠状动脉的多层螺旋CT(MSCT)图像进行分割。首先应用基于Hessian矩阵的局部血管增强(LVE)滤波,提升图像的对比度;随后采用自适应性区域生长(ARG)算法,并对阈值适时调整。分割后的局部图像经过全局融合得到整体冠脉树。算法综合了图像的局部形状信息和灰度信息,确保了分割结果的准确性和完整性。实验结果表明,算法对左前降支(LAD)、左回旋支(LCX)、对角支(Diag)及右冠状动脉(RCA)均有较好的分割效果。     

Evaluation of JPEG 2000 encoder options: human and model observer detection of variable signals in X-ray coronary angiograms

Previous studies have evaluated the effect of the new still image compression standard JPEG 2000 using nontask based image quality metrics, i.e., peak-signal-to-noise-ratio (PSNR) for nonmedical images. In this paper, the effect of JPEG 2000 encoder options was investigated using the performance of human and model observers (nonprewhitening matched filter with an eye filter, square-window Hotelling, Laguerre-Gauss Hotelling and channelized Hotelling model observer) for clinically relevant visual tasks. Two tasks were investigated: the signal known exactly but variable task (SKEV) and the signal known statistically task (SKS). Test images consisted of real X-ray coronary angiograms with simulated filling defects (signals) inserted in one of the four simulated arteries. The signals varied in size and shape. Experimental results indicated that the dependence of task performance on the JPEG 2000 encoder options was similar for all model and human observers. Model observer performance in the more tractable and computationally economic SKEV task can be used to reliably estimate performance in the complex but clinically more realistic SKS task. JPEG 2000 encoder settings different from the default ones resulted in greatly improved model and human observer performance in the studied clinically relevant visual tasks using real angiography backgrounds.     

3D Shape Reconstruction from Autostereograms and Stereo

We study the problem of shape reconstruction from stereo images based on a weighted area minimization process of a depth function. As a simple example we present an efficient shape reconstruction from computer generated autostereograms. A minimal surface area based correlation is applied to accurately reconstruct the surface structure embedded first in one autostereogram image and next in two or more stereo images. The minimal area approach proved itself as a useful geometric measure in recent reconstruction and enhancement applications in computer vision and image processing. Here we develop a simplified version for the O. Faugeras and R. Keriven (1998, IEEE Trans. Image Process.7, 336–344) stereo reconstruction model and apply a weighted area measure as part of a solution to the correspondence extraction in the shape from stereo and the shape from autostereogram problems. The proposed schemes are computationally efficient and yield accurate 3D reconstructions for smooth as well as nonsmooth surfaces.