Modeling Mitral Valve Leaflets from Three-Dimensional Ultrasound

The geometry of the mitral leaflets, most commonly viewed using three-dimensional ultrasound, is an important input for mechanical models predicting valve closure. Current methods for leaflet modeling from ultrasound either require extensive user interaction, rely on inaccurate assumptions, or produce generic results. The presented method for modeling the mitral leaflets from three-dimensional ultrasound of an open mitral valve is automatic and able to capture patient specific geometry. The method requires as an input the location of the mitral annulus, which we generate semi-automatically using our previously designed method. No additional user interaction is required. The leaflet modeling algorithm operates by first constructing an extended surface at the location of the leaflets which extends beyond the leaflet edges into the blood pool, and then trims the surface to the observed length of the leaflets. Preliminary results suggest the leaflet modeling method, combined with our previous method for annulus segmentation, generates accurate patient-specific mitral valve models.