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Systems and methods for determining and visualizing perfusion of myocardial muscle

  • US 10,080,613 B2
  • Filed: 09/08/2015
  • Issued: 09/25/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A system for determining and visualizing perfusion of a patient'"'"'s myocardial muscle using computed tomography, comprising:

  • a data storage device storing instructions for determining and visualizing perfusion of the patient'"'"'s myocardial muscle using computed tomography; and

    a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform a method including;

    segmenting (1) coronary blood vessels having vulnerable plaque and (2) myocardial muscle, from non-invasively produced patient-specific CT image data of a patient'"'"'s heart;

    generating a patient-specific three-dimensional model of blood flow through the coronary blood vessels segmented from the patient-specific image data;

    simulating, non-invasively, a blood flow through the coronary blood vessels of the patient-specific three-dimensional model, and determining from the simulation, blood flow into different regions of the myocardial muscle into which different branches of the coronary blood vessels lead;

    simulating, non-invasively, a patient-specific local perfusion of the myocardial muscle for the different regions on the basis of the determined blood flow into the different regions of the myocardial muscle and the three-dimensional model;

    determining one or more regions that are at risk of insufficient perfusion using the simulated patient-specific local perfusion of the different regions of the myocardial muscle and blood flow through coronary blood vessels having vulnerable plaque, wherein a region is at risk of insufficient perfusion if it comprises a quantifiable loss in local perfusion due to the vulnerable plaque; and

    generating a visualization of the myocardial muscle, from which the patient-specific local perfusion of the different regions of the myocardial muscle, the one or more regions that are at risk of insufficient perfusion, and the coronary blood vessels leading to the one or more regions that are at risk of insufficient perfusion are identifiable.

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