Quantification of Blood Flow from Rotational Angiography

For assessment of cerebrovascular diseases, it is beneficial to obtain three-dimensional (3D) information on vessel morphology and hemodynamics. Rotational angiography is routinely used to determine the 3D geometry and we propose a method to exploit the same acquisition to determine the blood flow waveform and the mean volumetric flow rate. The method uses a model of contrast agent dispersion to determine the flow parameters from the spatial and temporal development of the contrast agent concentration, represented by a flow map. Furthermore, it also overcomes artifacts due to the rotation of the c-arm using a newly introduced reliability map. The method was validated on images from a computer simulation and from a phantom experiment. With a mean error of 11.0% for the mean volumetric flow rate and 15.3% for the blood flow waveform from the phantom experiments, we conclude that the method has the potential to give quantitative estimates of blood flow parameters during cerebrovascular interventions.