High-quality 3-D coronary artery imaging on an interventional C-arm x-ray system.
OBJECTIVE
Three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of the coronary arteries during a cardiac catheter-based intervention can be performed from a C-arm based rotational x-ray angiography sequence. It can support the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, treatment planning, and intervention guidance. 3-D reconstruction also enables quantitative vessel analysis, including vessel dynamics from a time-series of reconstructions.


METHODS
The strong angular undersampling and motion effects present in gated cardiac reconstruction necessitate the development of special reconstruction methods. This contribution presents a fully automatic method for creating high-quality coronary artery reconstructions. It employs a sparseness-prior based iterative reconstruction technique in combination with projection-based motion compensation.


RESULTS
The method is tested on a dynamic software phantom, assessing reconstruction accuracy with respect to vessel radii and attenuation coefficients. Reconstructions from clinical cases are presented, displaying high contrast, sharpness, and level of detail.


CONCLUSIONS
The presented method enables high-quality 3-D coronary artery imaging on an interventional C-arm system.
Hansis
Eberhard
E
Philips Technologie GmbH Forschungslaboratorien, Röntgenstrasse 24-26, 22335 Hamburg, Germany. eberhard.hansis@philips.com
Carroll
John D
JD
Schäfer
Dirk
D
Dössel
Olaf
O
Grass
Michael
M
D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000532:radiotherapy; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D009038:Motion; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011859:Radiography; D015642:Radiology, Interventional / Q000379:methods*; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014965:X-Rays