Construction of a 3D coronary map to assess geometrical information in-vivo from coronary patients
2011; IOP Publishing; Volume: 332; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1088/1742-6596/332/1/012029
ISSN1742-6596
AutoresMariano E. Casciaro, Damián Craiem, Sebastián Graf, Enrique Gurfinkel, Ricardo L. Armentano,
Tópico(s)Medical Image Segmentation Techniques
ResumoTraditional risk factors are involved in the development of coronary artery disease (CAD), but geometrical risk factors have also proved to be determinant. In this work we present a new method to construct a 3D map of the left coronary artery tree using CT image processing and skeletonization techniques. We computed cumulative length-volume functions through the coronary tree bifurcations and also the relationships between total tree volumes, total length, number of segments and bifurcations with respect to the presence and severity of atherosclerotic plaques. A total of 65 patients, 40 with and 20 without CAD were recruited. We found more vascular segments and bifurcations per patient in the CAD group. Accordingly, total cumulative length was longer in CAD patients (p<0.01) whereas total cumulative volume was similar between groups. Cumulative length-volume (L-V) relationships conformed to an allometric function L = KV.Vβ. The allometric slope β≈0.75 did not change with disease, whereas the allometric constant KV was lower in the healthy group (p<0.05) consistent with the literature. These results suggest that CAD patients follow a compensatory mechanism, dilating the vessels to maintain a normal coronary flow. The 3D coronary map offers useful quantitative information of the coronary morphometry.
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