title: Model-guided directional minimal path for fully automatic extraction of coronary centerlines from cardiac CTA.
abstract: Extracting centerlines of coronary arteries is a challenging but important task in clinical applications of cardiac CTA. In this paper, we propose a model-guided approach, the directional minimal path, for the centerline extraction. The proposed method is based on the minimal path algorithm and a prior coronary model is used. The model is first registered to the unseen image. Then, the start point and end point for the minimal path algorithm are provided by the model to automate the centerline extraction process. Also, the direction information of the coronary model is used to guide the path tracking of the minimal path procedure. This directional tracking improves the robustness and accuracy of the centerline extraction. Finally, the proposed method can automatically recognize the branches of the extracted coronary artery using the prior information in the model. We validated the proposed method by extracting the three main coronary branches. The mean accuracy of the 56 cases was 1.32+/-0.81 mm and the detection ratio was 88.7%.
authors: Shanghai Jiaotong Universiy, Shanghai, China.
authors: Liu
authors: L
authors: Liu
authors: Biomedical Image Analysis Group, Imperial College London, UK.
authors: Wenzhe
authors: W
authors: Shi
authors: Biomedical Image Analysis Group, Imperial College London, UK.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Rueckert
authors: Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, UK.
authors: Mingxing
authors: M
authors: Hu
authors: Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, UK.
authors: Sebastien
authors: S
authors: Ourselin
authors: Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
authors: Xiahai
authors: X
authors: Zhuang
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*