Accurate coronary modeling procedure using 2D calibrated projections based on 2D centerline points on a single projection

For the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease, accurate quantitative analysis of the coronary arteries is important. In coronary angiography, a number of projections is acquired from which 3D models of the coronaries can be reconstructed. A signifcant limitation of the current 3D modeling procedures is the required user interaction for defining the centerlines of the vessel structures in the 2D projections. Currently, the 3D centerlines of the coronary tree structure are calculated based on the interactively determined centerlines in two projections. For every interactively selected centerline point in a first projection the corresponding point in a second projection has to be determined interactively by the user. The correspondence is obtained based on the epipolar-geometry. In this paper a method is proposed to retrieve all the information required for the modeling procedure, by the interactive determination of the 2D centerline-points in only one projection. For every determined 2D centerline-point the corresponding 3D centerline-point is calculated by the analysis of the 1D gray value functions of the corresponding epipolarlines in space for all available 2D projections. This information is then used to build a 3D representation of the coronary arteries using coronary modeling techniques. The approach is illustrated on the analysis of calibrated phantom and calibrated coronary projection data.