Problems in Acquisition and Representation of Coronary Arterial Trees

The nature of the contractions of the heart wall has long been recognized as indicative of the presence and degree of atherosclerotic lesions in the coronary arteries. More recently, the coronary arterial tree itself has been studied and the changes in length of the arterial segments during a heart cycle have been shown to have diagnostic value for coronary artery disease. Further, it has been proposed that the geometry of the tree influences the nature and location of lesions in the walls of the coronary vessels.