Three-dimensional reconstruction of coronary arteries and plaque morphology using CT angiography - comparison and registration with IVUS

Author(s):Show less -

Athanasiou, Lambros ^[1] ; Rigas, George ^[1] ; Sakellarios, Antonis I. ^[1] ; Exarchos, Themis P. ^{[1, 2]} ; Siogkas, Panagiotis K. ^[1] ; Bourantas, Christos V. ^{[3, 4]} ; Garcia-Garcia, Hector M. ^[5] ; Lemos, Pedro A. ^[6] ; Falcao, Breno A. ^[6] ; Michalis, Lampros K. ^{[7, 8]} ; Parodi, Oberdan ^{[7, 8]} ; Vozzi, Federico ^[9] ; Fotiadis, Dimitrios I. ^{[1, 2, 7, 8]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Ioannina, Dept Mat Sci & Engn, Unit Med Technol & Intelligent Informat Syst, GR-45110 Ioannina - Greece

^[2] FORTH Inst Mol Biol & Biotechnol, Dept Biomed Res, GR-45110 Ioannina - Greece

^[3] Barts Heart Ctr, Dept Cardiol, London - England

^[4] UCL, Dept Cardiovasc Sci, London - England

^[5] Erasmus Univ, Thoraxctr, Med Ctr, Dept Intervent Cardiol, NL-3000 DR Rotterdam - Netherlands

^[6] Univ Sao Paulo, Sch Med, Inst Heart, Dept Intervent Cardiol, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[7] Univ Ioannina, Sch Med, Michaelid Cardiac Ctr, GR-45110 Ioannina - Greece

^[8] Univ Ioannina, Sch Med, Dept Cardiol, GR-45110 Ioannina - Greece

^[9] CNR, Inst Clin Physiol, IT-56124 Pisa - Italy

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: BMC MEDICAL IMAGING; v. 16, JAN 19 2016.
• Web of Science Citations: 15

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study is to present a new methodology for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of coronary arteries and plaque morphology using Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA). Methods: The methodology is summarized in six stages: 1) pre-processing of the initial raw images, 2) rough estimation of the lumen and outer vessel wall borders and approximation of the vessel's centerline, 3) manual adaptation of plaque parameters, 4) accurate extraction of the luminal centerline, 5) detection of the lumen outer vessel wall borders and calcium plaque region, and 6) finally 3D surface construction. Results: The methodology was compared to the estimations of a recently presented Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) plaque characterization method. The correlation coefficients for calcium volume, surface area, length and angle vessel were 0.79, 0.86, 0.95 and 0.88, respectively. Additionally, when comparing the inner and outer vessel wall volumes of the reconstructed arteries produced by IVUS and CTA the observed correlation was 0.87 and 0.83, respectively. Conclusions: The results indicated that the proposed methodology is fast and accurate and thus it is likely in the future to have applications in research and clinical arena. (AU)