Determination of QCA parameters using optimal angiographic viewing angles
J. Christiaens, Rik Van de Walle, Ignace A. Lemahieu, Peter J. Gheeraert, Yvo Taeymans · 2001
Abstract:- In clinical practice, the quantification of stenotic lesions in coronary arteries is mostly done using angiographic images of the coronaries. This method is called Quantitative Coronary Angiography (QCA). Unfortunately, the QCA results depend on the viewing angles corresponding with the used images. To deal with this problem, multiple computer systems have recently been developed that combine the information of angiographic images to build up a three dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of the coronary arteries, and perform the quantification based on this reconstruction. In this paper, a method is proposed with which the optimal angiographic viewing angles (the best possible viewing angles to perform QCA), the bifurcation angles and the degrees of foreshortening can be determined, without the need of a reconstruction. This method of course does not provide the additional information of a 3-D reconstruction, but it is very fast and robust to determine the QCA parameters. Validation using images of phantoms and clinical images proofs its accuracy.