Automatic determination of aortic compliance with cine-magnetic resonance imaging: an application of fuzzy logic theory.
OBJECTIVE
Aortic compliance is defined as the relative change in aortic cross-sectional area divided by the change in arterial pressure. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a useful imaging modality for the noninvasive evaluation of aortic compliance. However, manual tracing of the aortic contour is subject to important interobserver variations. To estimate the aortic compliance from cine-MRI, a method based on fuzzy logic theory was elaborated.


METHODS
Seven healthy volunteers and eight patients with Marfan syndrome were examined using an ECG gated cine-MRI sequence. The aorta was imaged in the transverse plane at the level of the pulmonary trunk. A method based on fuzzy logic was developed to automatically detect the aortic contour.


RESULTS
Through our robust automatic contouring method, the calculation of aortic cross-sectional areas allows an estimation of the aortic compliance.


CONCLUSIONS
The aortic compliance can be obtained from a fuzzy logic based automatic contouring method, thereby avoiding the important interobserver variation often associated with manual tracing.
Lalande
Alain
A
Laboratoire de Biophysique, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France. alalande@u-bougogne.fr
Khau van Kien
Philippe
P
Salvé
Nicolas
N
Ben Salem
Douraied
D
Legrand
Louis
L
Walker
Paul Michael
PM
Wolf
Jean-Eric
JE
Brunotte
François
F
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001011:Aorta / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine; D008382:Marfan Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged