3‐D reconstruction of coronary artery from cine‐angiograms based on left ventricular model
Shinichi Iwai, Masahiko Yachida, Saburo Tsuji · Systems and Computers in Japan · 1986
Abstract There is an increasing demand for coronary angiography, corresponding to the recent increase of such ischemic cardiac diseases as myocardial infarction. At present, the obtained angiograms must be read by specialized doctors and require a large amount of time. Still it is usually difficult to arrive at a three‐dimensional understanding of the coronary artery. From such a point of view, this paper aims at the automatic analysis of the angiogram and describes a method which can determine the correspondence between vessels in the coronary artery angiograms taken along two directions. In the proposed system the three‐dimensional information is used in establishing the correspondence, which is difficult for human observers to utilize. As the first step, a straight line connecting a branch point of a vessel and the X‐ray source is considered and the projection of that line onto another image (called an epi‐polar line) is determined. Points close to that line are used as candidates for the correspondence. Then, using the vessels with established correspondences, a three‐dimensional model is constructed for determination of the correct candidates. Then a prohibited region in the three‐dimensional model is specified where there cannot exist a vessel. The vessels with established correspondence are represented in three dimensions and evaluation of the left ventricle is performed. From the results of experiment, the validity and the problems of the proposed system are pointed out.